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"When Mr. King had said these words, he began the Church Catechism, and 
went through It with the children, putting no questions to them except such 
as were in the book, and the children so far answered Tery well." — Page 206. 



Stories for Sundays 



ILLUSTRATING 



THE CATECHISM, 



BY THE 

AUTHOR OF "LITTLE HENRY AND HIS BEARER. 



REVISED AND EDITED 

By a. CLEVELAND COXE 

Bishop of Western Neiv York. 




PHILADELPHIA 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1869 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



LIPPINCOTT'8 PRESS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



APR 18 ^ 

Army and Navy Oivj^ ^ 

V/asiiington D. C. 



PREFACE 



While Mrs. Sherwood lived at Cawnpore, she was so 
happy as to become acquainted with Henry Martyn, then 
chaplain at that post. We learn from her biography, lately 
published, that she was much in his society, and that her 
views of religion were greatly influenced by him. To this 
we must attribute, in large measure, the unction and feeling 
of her earlier writings, and their general orthodoxy. She 
wrote these <' Stories on the Catechism" soon after his 
departure for England, in 1810. The reader will probably 
fancy that something of his portrait is seen in the character 
of the " Mr. King," of the Stories. 

More than thirty years ago this work was republished by 
Bishop Kemp with considerable alterations. A revised edi- 
tion was published in Baltimore in i860, under my edi- 
torial care. I restored the attractive Indian words, but 
left the original as little changed as was consistent with a 
correction of its less cautious doctrinal statements. And 
now, in sending it forth anew in a stereotype edition, I 
hope I may be forgiven for saying that I do this, in part, 
as a tribute to a saintly mother, who now sleeps in Jesus, 
and in gratitude for the lessons imparted to my early child- 
hood by her sweet voice, as she read these Stories to me 



4 PREFACE. 

in the nursery, and tenderly illustrated them by her com- 
ments. Such were her discrimination and good taste, and 
such was her faith unfeigned, that I consider her practical 
approval of this work a sufficient proof of its adaptation to 
the holy uses of maternal piety. A. C. C. 

See House, Buffalo, 
June^ 1869. 



STORIES 



ILLUSTRATING THE CATECHISM. 



STORY I 




«Q. What is you?' Name f^ 

OT long after the English took possession 
of Cawnpore, in India, a regiment of his 
Majesty's troops was stationed there. The 
cantonment was situated on the river Ganges, above 
eight hundred miles from Calcutta ; and consisted of 
ten ranges of barracks, separated from each other by- 
distances of fifty yards, or more. Each range had 
two long apartments, and at each end of these was a 
smaller room, the whole surrounded by a verandah^ 
or open gallery, and covered with a thatch. In the 
long rooms the private soldiers and corporals, with 
their wives and families, were ordinarily lodged. 
The four smaller rooms were allotted to the sergeants 
and their families ; and these, being attended by na- 
tive Indian servants, enjoyed a considerable degree 
of comfort. 

One day the wife of Sergeant Mills called her lit- 
1^' 5 



6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

tie girl to her, and said, "Mary, get on your clean 
frock and bonnet, and as soon as the sun is down 
we will go over to the captain's bungalow ; for the 
captain's wife has got a little baby, and she has given 
me leave to bring you to see it." 

So little Mary was pleased ; and hastening to put 
on her clean frock, she was ready to go out with her 
mother as soon as the men went to parade. 

Now when Mrs. Mills and little Mary reached the 
captain's bungalow^ they saw the lady sitting in the 
verandah^ with her baby on her lap. Little Mary 
instantly ran up to the baby, and kissed him with so 
much eagerness that she almost made him cry. 
Then the captain's lady said, "You must not kiss 
him so roughly, my dear ; for he is very young, and 
you will hurt him." 

Little Mary replied, " I would not hurt him for 
the world ; for he is very pretty, and his skin is as 
soft as velvet. Pray, Ma'am, tell me what his 
name is." 

Then said the captain's lady, " My dear, he has 
no name yet, excepting his father's name. His fa- 
ther's name is Smith ; so this little boy has the sur- 
name of Smith, but he has no Christian name. 
When he is baptized he will receive another name, 
and that will be his Christian name." 

Mary. Baptized ! what is that. Ma'am 1 

Captain's Lady. It would take some time to 
explain to you what baptism means, but I will try 
to do it as well as I can ; and you shall go with my 
little boy when he is taken to church to be baptized, 
if you are a good girl. ** 

Mary. I should like, very much, to go and see 



THE CATECHISM. 7 

the baby baptized. And will you please now tell 
me, Ma'am, what baptism is? 

Captain's Lady. To make you understand this 
matter, I must go back a long, long time, and ex- 
plain to you the history of mankind, even from the 
beginning of the world. But I must first ask you a 
few questions : Do you know who made the world "i 

Mary. Yes, Ma'am. " In the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. i. 

Captain's Lady. Who made men and women.? 

Mary. " God created man in his own image ; in 
the image of God created he him ; male and female 
created he them." Gen. i. 27. 

Captaifi's Lady. Where did God place Adam 
and Eve when he made them,? 

Mary. In a beautiful garden called Paradise ; 
and he gave them leave to eat of all the trees of the 
garden, excepting the tree of knowledge of good and 
evil. Concerning this tree God expressly assured 
them that in the day they ate thereof they should 
surely die. 

Captain's Lady. You have answered well. And 
did they eat of that tree which God had forbidden 
them to taste } 

Mary. Yes, they did ; for the devil came in the 
shape of the serpent, and tempted them to eat of the 
forbidden fruit. 

Captain's Lady. And did they die that day.? 

Mary. I don't know. 

Captain's Lady. We are led to understand from 
the Holy Bible, my dear, that Almighty God, fore- 
seeing that mankind would fall by the malice of Sa- 
tan, provided a Saviour even before the foundation 



8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

of the world — which Saviour is Christ, the Son of 
God. And we beheve that when our first parents 
sinned, they would instantly have died and gone 
into eternal punishment, had not the power of 
Christ interfered in their favour. Therefore it is 
written in St. John's Gospel : " In him was life ; and 
the life was the light of men." John i. 4. 

Mary replied : " I do not know exactly what you 
mean, Ma'am." 

" You must understand, my dear," said the lady, 
" that at the very moment in which Adam and Eve 
sinned, they brought themselves under the sentence 
of death — temporal death, which is the destruction 
of the body, and eternal death, which is an everlast- 
ing separation from God. And this sentence of death 
would have been instantly executed upon them — that 
is, they would immediately have died and gone into 
a state of hopeless misery after they had sinned — 
had not the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world come in between them and death, to procure 
for them and their posterity a delay of the sentence. 
Thus our Saviour obtains a sufficient season for re- 
pentance and reconciliation with God for all the sin- 
ful children of Adam ; and for those among us who 
are mercifully led to believe in and love him, ever- 
lasting life and glory. But although the execution 
of this dreadful sentence is put off through the mercy 
of Christ ; yet when Adam sinned, he brought that 
evil into our nature, which, without divine help, will 
assuredly separate us for ever from God. Adam and 
Eve, after their disobedience, became of themselves 
utterly sinful — and all their children — that is, all the 
people who now exist, as well as all whoever did or 



THE CATECHISM. 9 

ever shall exist upon the face of the earth — partake 
of the same evil nature. Our hearts naturally bring 
forth all manner of wickedness. As soon as a baby 
begins to speak or to walk, it follows after that which 
is evil ; so that it is written in I John v. 19 : ' We 
know that the whole world lieth in wickedness ;' and 
again, in Romans iii. 12 : ' There is none that doeth 
good, no, not one.'" 

Mary. My mother has often talked to me of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and told me, that if I did not love 
him I should never go to heaven. But, Ma*am, you 
say w^e are all sinners. Surely that pretty baby in 
your lap is not a sinner.? Sinners are wicked peo- 
ple : that baby is not wicked } 

Caf taints Lady. I am a sinner, and his father 
is a sinner ; therefore this poor baby, being born like 
his father and mother, will, as soon as he is able, 
show naughty tempers. He is like the little tiger 
which I saw playing in the bazar. Nobody was 
afraid of him, because he was so young and small, 
and had no teeth ; but give him only a few months, 
and he will grow up to be as fierce as any tiger in the 
woods. So it is with my poor baby : if the Lord 
does not change his nature, and give him a clean and 
holy heart, he will grow to be as naughty as other 
children, and become as full of wickedness as other 
men. 

Mary. Oh, alas, alas ! And must this baby grow 
up to be wicked and go to hell ? 

Captain^ s Lady. God forbid that any such thing 
should be ! God forbid that my poor baby should 
ever be condemned to hell ! But I know that unless 
he becomes the child of God and obtains a clean 



lO STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

heart, he cannot go to heaven. And as he can do 
nothing for himself now, I, being his mother, must 
do all I can for him. Therefore, to-morrow morn- 
ing, which will be Sunday, I shall take him to 
church, where the clergyman will receive him and 
pour upon . him pure water, as Christ has com- 
manded. This is baptism; a token and pledge that 
the Holy Ghost thus applies to the soul the blood of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, which cleanseth from all sin : 
and I do earnestly pray that God may accept him in 
that holy sacrament, and make him his own child ; 
when he will receive what we properly term his 
Christian name. 

The captain's wife then gave Mary an orange, tell- 
ing her to come early in the morning and she should 
see the little boy baptized. • 




STORY II 




" Q. Who gave you this name J"' 

ARLY the next morning, Mrs. Mills and 
Mary dressed themselves quite clean ; and 
when they had eaten their breakfast, they 
took their Prayer-Books in their hands and went 
over to the captain's bungalow. 

When they got into the compound^ they saw all 
the ladies and gentlemen in the verandah^ waiting 
to go to church with the baby. There was the cap- 
tain and his wife, and the nurse with the little baby ; 
besides which there were two gentlemen, officers of 
the same regiment, and one lady. These two gen- 
tlemen were to be the little boy's godfathers, and the 
lady was to be his godmother ; for every little boy 
that is baptized must have two godfathers and one 
godmother, and every little girl that is baptized must 
have one godfather and two godmothers. 

Now it was time to go to the church, when all 
the ladies and gentlemen got into palanquins^ be- 
cause the heat was very great ; and one of the gen- 
tlemen was so kind as to lend Mrs. Mills and little 
Mary his palanquin to go to church in. 

While they were carried along, little Mary said to 

11 



12 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

her mother, " Why do those two officers and that 
lady go with us to church?" 

j\frs. Mills. Those two officers are to be the 
little baby's godfathers, and that lady his god- 
mother. 

Mary. Oh ! I know now. I have a godmother 
in the barracks. But why do children have god- 
fathers and godmothers.'* 

Mrs. Mills. I w^ill try to make you understand, 
my dear. What are we going to church for now ? 

Mary. To offer the baby to God, and to receive 
him into the Church of God. 

Mrs. Mills. When people become members of 
Christ, what should they do? 

Alaiy. They should be good and love God, and 
not follow sin any longer. 

Mrs. Mills. But does the baby know this ? Can 
we make him understand it? 

Mary. No, mother ; for he does not know any- 
thing that is said to him : he is too young. 

Mrs. Mills. True, my dear : therefore, as he can- 
not himself understand that he ought to be good and 
to love God, it is necessary to have some grown peo- 
ple to go with him, who will promise in his name 
what he must perform if he would be saved by 
Christ ; without whom, as the lady told you yester- 
day, his natural corruption will surely bring about his 
destruction ; and these persons are to take care that 
he is taught his duty, as he becomes old enough to 
learn it. 

Mary. Oh ! now I know what godfathers and 
godmothers are for. And now I understand the 
reason why my godmother in the barracks makes 



THE CATECHISM, 13 

me read to her, and hears me my Catechism so 
often. 

By this time they were come to the church com- 
pound^ where the ladies and gentlemen got out of 
their palanquins^ and Mary and Mrs. Mills followed. 
So they went into the church, carrying the baby with 
them, which they reverently presented to the clergy- 
man, who was standing near the font, or baptismal 
vessel, which was filled with pure water. 

Then little Mary hearkened so attentively to every- 
thing which the clergyman said that she remembered 
many of his words, and repeated them to her mother 
when she went home. 

The first thing he asked w^as, " Hath this child 
been already baptized or no ?" 

And when they answered, " No," he went on and 
said, "Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are 
conceived and born in sin, and our Saviour Christ 
saith (John iii. 5), ' None can enter into the kingdom 
of God, except he be regenerate and born anew of 
water and of the Holy Ghost ;' I beseech you to call 
upon God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that of his bounteous mercy he will grant to this 
child that thing which by nature he cannot have, that 
he may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, 
and received into Christ's holy Church and be made 
a lively member of the same." 

After this they all knelt, and the clergyman prayed 
for the baby, that the Lord Jesus Christ would re- 
ceive him and make him holy (i Cor. vii. 14) ; and 
Mary attended to all the words of the prayer. 

Then rising up from their knees, the clergyman 
read a part of the tenth chapter of St. Mark, in 
2 



14 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

which Mary remembered these words well : " They 
brought young children to Christ, that he should 
touch them ; and his disciples rebuked those that 
brought them. But when Jesus saw it he was much 
displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little chil- 
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of 
such is the kingdom of God." 

After this, the clergyman repeated many more 
words, and inquired of the godfathers and the god- 
mother what things they promised in the name of 
that child, but Mary could not remember everything 
that was said. 

She was, however, very much pleased when the 
clergyman, having asked what name the baby was 
to have, took him in his arms, and pouring on his 
face the pure water, said, " Charles" (for that was 
the name the child was to have), " I baptize thee in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost." 

Here the clergyman, who was a faithful minister 
of Christ, thanked God that he had begun a good 
work in the baby's soul, and prayed that it might not 
be in vain, but that the child might live accordingly, 
and die unto sin, so as finally to be saved. And 
when all was over, he kissed little Charles, and said, 
" Mayest thou, dear child, live by faith, as one of 
that little flock to whom it is the Father's good 
pleasure to give the kingdom !" Luke xii. 32. 

Now, when the baptismal service was completed, 
the gentlemen and ladies returned to Captain Smith's 
bungalow^ and everybody kissed little Charles. Mary 
and her mother were then invited by the captain's 
lady to stay and eat some plum-pudding ; so they 



THE CATECHISM. 1 5 

stayed, and Mary had her dinner in little Charles' 
room. 

And as the evening drew on, the clergyman 
joined the company ; when the day was appropri- 
ately concluded, not in rioting and drunkenness, but 
in singing a psalm, reading a portion of Scripture, 
and in prayer. After which, little Mary went home 
with her mother. 




STORY III. 

"^ meviher of Christy the child of God, and an inheritor 
of the kifigdom of heaven.^'' 




HILE the men were at parade on Monday 
morning, Mrs. Browne, Sergeant Browne's 
wife (who was Mary's godmother), came 
over to Mrs. Mills', to ask leave for Mary to go 
home with her, to spend the day. Mrs. Mills gave 
her leave ver} cordially, well knowing that little 
Mary never learned any harm at Mrs. Browne's : 
since both Mrs. Browne and the sergeant were 
people fearing God. So Mary made haste to get 
ready, taking her Bible and Catechism-Book in her 
hand. Neither did she forget to take a bit of cake 
for her godmother's parrot : for Mrs. Browne had a 
very fine parrot, which could repeat almost anything 
it heard, and which used to sing " God save the 
King." 

So little Mary and Mrs. Browne set off, and got 
to Mrs. Browne's berth before the sergeant returned 
from parade ; and Mary amused herself with talking 
to the parrot till the sergeant came in and breakfast 
was ready. 

After breakfast, her godmother desired Mary to 
16 



THE CATECHISM. 17 

repeat the Catechism ; promising that, if she should 
go through it without missing a word, she would 
take her some day to the Europe shop in the 
great bazar^ and buy her a silver thimble. So 
Mary endeavoured to repeat her Catechism without 
making a single mistake ; notwithstanding which, 
she missed three words. The mistakes, however, 
being very inconsiderable, her godmother kindly 
overlooked them, and assured her of the thimble. 
Mrs. Browne then asked her a few questions, in 
order to discover whether she understood her Cate- 
chism, and whether she remembered the things 
which she had been taught. And thus she began : 

" Mary, you were yesterday at the baptism of the 
captain's little boy : and pray what was his name.f"' 

Mary answered, " Charles." 

Mrs. Browne. Can you, my dear, give me an 
account of what baptism is, or what is the benefit 
of it.? 

Mary. My Catechism says, that when persons 
are baptized, they are made members of Christ, 
children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Mrs. Browne answered, " It is written in the 
Bible, that they who ask shall receive, and they who 
seek shall find : therefore we may venture to say, 
that an infant receives the inward and spiritual 
grace, together with the outward and visible sign, 
and is thus made a member of Christ, a child of 
God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." 

Mary. Godmother, I do not quite understand 
what you say ! 

Mrs. Browne was silent for a few minutes, and 
2* B 



1 8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

then continued, " My dear child, many wiser per- 
sons than myself, have found it difficult to express 
themselves v\^ell on these subjects. I therefore speak 
with fear, lest, while attempting to lead you in the 
right way, I should prove to be like the blind leader 
of the blind : but I will try to make this matter clear 
to you. As the Church Catechism expresses it, bap- 
tism is one of those tw^o sacraments which were 
ordained by Christ himself. Baptism is made up 
of two parts : an outward part, which is water 
wherein the baptized person is washed ; and an 
inward part, which is a death unto sin, and a new 
birth unto righteousness. But there are too many 
persons, who from custom obsei-ve the outward form 
of baptism, while they entirely disregard the inward 
and spiritual grace. Of such persons, we cannot 
say that they are truly members of Christ, neither 
does our Catechism imply any such thing." 

Mary still looking as if she did not understand her 
godmother, Mrs. Browme proceeded to tell her a 
story, which she hoped would make her meaning 
plainer. " When I first came to this country," said 
Mrs. Browne, " I happened to know a young man, 
the son of a European, who had a mind to marry 
a Mussulmaun woman of bad character. The young 
man's father at first refused his consent ; but being 
at length over-persuaded by his son, he pemiitted the 
marriage to take place, on condition that the woman 
should be made a Christian, as he termed it; that is, 
should be baptized. Now there happened to be in 
that place a popish priest, whom the young man 
readily persuaded to baptize the woman w^ithout 
asking her any questions concerning her belief: for 



THE CATECHISM. 19 

the popish missionaries in India have always acted 
as if the outward form alone were necessary. It is 
very difficult indeed in some cases," added Mrs. 
Browne, " for human creatures to decide when bap- 
tism is rightly administered, or to know when the 
outward ceremony is accompanied by the inward 
and spiritual grace ; but here was a plain case : here 
the outward and visible sign was administered, but 
no inward blessing w^as sought for. The baptism of 
this woman was merely outward ; nor is it possible 
to suppose that she was made by it a living member 
of Christ, or a true child of God." Acts viii. 21. 

"Godmother," replied Mary, "I think that I 
understand this better now." 

" Well," said Mrs. Browne, " we will leave this 
matter for the present ; but I shall hope, with God's 
blessing, very frequently to speak with you on the 
same subject ; and may God give me the wisdom to 
do it rightly !" 

Mrs. Browne then asked Mary, " What are all 
mankind by nature .?" 

To which Mary replied, " Children of the wicked 
one. 

Mrs. Browne. You are right, my dear. Every 
child that was ever born into the world, excepting 
our Lord Jesus Christ, was born in sin ; as it is 
written in Genesis vi. 5 : " And God saw that the 
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that 
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was 
only evil continually." 

Mary. You taught me that verse, godmother, 
when I was here last. 

Mrs. Browne. And I taught you another verse 



20 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

about the wickedness of men. Do you remember 
it ? It is from Ecclesiastes. 

Mary. Oh, yes, I do. It is this : " There is not a 
just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth 
not." Eccles. vii. 20. 

Mrs. Browne. What is the punishment of sin? 

Maiy. The punishment of sin is death : first the 
death of our body in the grave ; and next, the death 
of our souls, or eternal death in hell. 

Mrs. Browne. All sinners will suffer the first 
death ; so every mortal body must go down into the 
grave and see corruption. But will every sinner go 
to hell ? 

Mary. No, godmother, I hope not ; for then you 
and I should surely go to hell, for we are sinners. 

Mrs. Browne. What must we do to be saved.'* 

Mary. We must believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Mrs. Browne. You must believe in him, you 
must abide in him, and become a member of him. 
Do you know, Mary, what we mean by the words, 
"A member of Christ," which are used in the Cate- 
chism? 

"A member of Christ.?" said little Mary. " Oh ! it 
means — it means — I don't know what it means." 

Mrs. Browne. If you know not w^hat it means, 
why did you not ask me ? That is very silly, Mary, 
to say words and not to think what they mean. I 
have a great mind to teach you no more. I might 
just as well teach my parrot as a little girl that does 
not think what she is saying, but repeats her words 
like a foolish bird. Come here. Poll. Sit on my 
finger, and I will teach you your Catechism. You 



THE CATECHISM. 21 

will soon say it as well, and know what it means as 
well, as this little girl does. 

Mary was ashamed when Mrs. Browne said the 
parrot would soon learn as well as she could ; and 
she told Mrs. Browne, that she would not say her 
Catechism any more like a parrot, but would try to 
understand it ; and if she met with any words that 
she did not understand, she would ask the meaning 
of them. 

" Then," said Mrs. Browne, " I will endeavour, 
Mary, to make you understand what is meant by 
being a member of Christ. You know, my dear, 
that you have but one body, and that this body is 
made up of many parts ; but although there are in 
each body a great many members, these members 
have but one head. In like manner, although there 
are many individuals in the true Church of Christ, 
yet they have all only one head : Christ is the head, 
and they are the members, ' chosen in him before the 
foundation of the world, that they should be holy and 
without blame before him in love.' " Eph. i. 4. 

Mary. Oh ! now I understand this. Every 
Christian is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, as my 
hand is to my head ; and for that reason we are 
called members of Christ. 

Mrs. Browne. My dear child, be careful to ob- 
serve this thing: that there are many, calling them- 
selves Christians, who are joined to the Lord Jesus 
Christ merely in talk, or in some outward form. 
Let us take care how we fall into this mistake, which 
may end in everlasting misery. 

Then Mrs. Browne explained to little Mary, what 
is meant by becoming an inheritor of the kingdom 



22 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC, 

of heaven. " Suppose," she said, " your father and 
mother were to die, who would have their clothes, 
and books, and tables, and chairs, and cots, and 
rupees P^^ 

Mary thought a little while. At last she said, " I 
suppose I should have them ; for I am their child, 
and they have no other." 

]\frs. Browne. You have answered right, my 
dear. You are your father's heir, and you will in- 
herit all his things when he dies. So, my dear, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, when he died upon the cross, left 
to those persons who are his children the kingdom 
of heaven as an inheritance. If you are a child of 
God, when you die you will have a place in the 
kingdom of heaven ; and I will teach you a verse 
about it from Romans viii. 17 : " If ye are children 
of God, then are ye heirs ; heirs of God, and joint- 
heirs with Christ." 

Now little Mary wanted to ask Mrs. Browne some 
more questions ; but Mrs. Browne, having some 
work to do, was obliged to leave off talking for that 
day ; so Mary hemmed her godmother a pocket 
handkerchief; after which she went to play with the 
parrot. And Mrs. Browne overheard Mary saying 
to the parrot, " So my godmother says I am no wiser 
than you, Poll ; and that you might be taught to say 
the Catechism as well as I do ; but I won't be like 
you any longer, Mrs. Polly ; for I will try to under- 
stand the words I say, and that's what you cannot 
do, with all your fine talking." 

In the evening Mrs. Mills came over to drink tea 
with Mrs. Browne, and took little Mary home with 
her at night. 



STORY IV. 

fQ. What did your godfathers and godmothers then for 

you ? 
A. They did promise for me, that I should renounce the 

devil and all his works?'' 



N Saturday evening, it being shady and cool, 
Mrs. Browne came over to Mrs. Mills' 
berths to ask if Mary might go with her to 
the great bazar for the thimble which she had prom- 
ised her. To this Mrs. Mills readily assented, and 
made haste to get Mary ready ; who, as soon as she 
was dressed, took hold of her godmother's hand, 
and set off, so full of joy that she could not walk 
without skipping and jumping. 

Before they had proceeded many steps. Sergeant 
Mills came running after them. " Here," said he, 
" Mrs. Browne, are four pucker-pice for Mary to 
spend in the bazar; but I will thank you, Mrs. 
Browne, not to let her have any fruit, as my wife 
says she has not been well these two or three days 
from eating fruit." So Mrs. Browne promised she 
should not ; and they went on. 

" Oh, godmother," said litttle Mary, as soon as 
her father was gone, " I love you very much." 

23 



24 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. Browne. What do you love me for, my 
dear ? 

Mary. Because you take me to the bazar .^ to buy 
me a thimble. 

Mrs. Browne. Have you no other reason for 
loving me ? 

Mary. Oh yes ! I love you for a great many 
things. I love you for taking so much pains to make 
me good. 

Mrs. Browne. Do you know why I take so much 
pains to teach you ? 

Mary. Yes : — because you are my godmother, 
and you promised for me at my baptism. 

Mrs. Browne. What did I promise for you } 

Mary. I can tell — it is in the Catechism. You 
promised " three things in my name : first, that I 
should renounce the devil and all his works, the 
pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all 
the sinful lusts of the flesh ; secondly, that I should 
believe all the articles of the Christian faith ; and 
thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and com- 
mandments, and walk in the same all the days of 
my life." 

" Right," said Mrs. Browne. " Can you tell me, 
Mary, what renouncing the devil is? I promised 
first, that you should renounce the devil." 

Mary. Renounce the devil, godmother — renounce 
the devil — why, renouncing the devil is — renouncing 
the devil. 

Mrs. Browne. Why, my dear, that's no answer 
at all. I ask you, what is meant by renouncing the 
devil.? 



THE CATECHISM, 25 

" Indeed, godmother," said Mary, " I don't know. 
Please to tell me." 

Mrs. Browite. To renounce anything, or any 
person, is to have nothing more to do with them. 
Just as if I were to say, that Mary Mills is a silly 
little girl ; I will have nothing more to do with her — 

1 renounce her. So I promised for you to have 
nothing to do with the devil, or any of his wicked 
ways — that you should be taught to renounce him. 

Mary. Oh ! I know what renouncing means 
now. 

Mrs. Browne. Can you tell me, my dear, who 
the devil is? 

Mary. The chief of the wicked angels, who 
having sinned against God, were cast down from 
heaven into hell. I can say a verse about their 
being cast into hell. 

Mrs. Browne. What is it, my dear? 

Mary. " God spared not the angels that sinned, 
but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into 
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." 

2 Peter ii. 4. 

Mrs. Browne. True, my love : these fallen angels 
are now become devils ; and these devils hate God, 
and all their works are evil. And these are the 
works which you promised, at your baptism, that 
you would not do : because " he that committeth sin, 
is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the begin- 
ning. For this purpose, the Son of God was mani- 
fested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 
I John iii. 8. 

Mary. Pray, godmother, teach me that verse : I 
like it very much. 
3 



26 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

By this time, Mrs. Browne and Mary were come 
almost to the corner of the last barrack, just' as the 
road turns toward the bazar^ and they heard a loud 
noise of people swearing dreadfully ; at which Mary 
looked back, and saw two men standing in the 
vera7idah^ who were swearing at each other in a 
frightful manner. Then Mrs. Browne gave Mary a 
pull, saying, " Make haste, Mary ; and do not listen 
to those wicked men. Do you not hear how dread- 
fully they are swearing? Those men are doing the 
works of the devil, and not of God ; for our Lord 
Jesus Christ hath said, ' Swear not at all : neither by 
heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor by the earth, for 
it is his footstool ; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the 
city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by 
thy head, because thou canst not make one hair 
white or black. But let your communication be. 
Yea, yea ; nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than 
these, Cometh of evil.' Matt. v. 34-37. Swearing, 
my dear, and taking the holy name of God in vain, 
are some of the wicked works of the devil, which 
you must renounce." 

Mrs. Browne and Mary were now almost out of 
sight of the barracks, and were come into the high 
road ; and as they were going along they met two 
white women dressed in very fine clothes, but very 
dirty, and covered with dust. Even at a distance 
they had heard them talking very loud ; and on 
coming near, they found that they were women of 
the regiment, both of them very tipsy, and one, in 
particular, so far gone that she could not walk 
straight ; and their faces were quite red. Then said 
little Mary, when they were passed, " I am sure they 



THE CATECHISM. 2"] 

have been drinking too much ; they look quite tipsy, 
and that is very shameful." 

M^rs. Browne. Very shameful, indeed, my dear ! 
and very wicked ! Poor women ! we must pray to 
God to show them their sin, for drunkenness is one 
of the works of the devil, and it is written, " No 
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." i Cor. 
vi. lo. 

By this time Mrs. Browne and Mary had come 
within sight of the great bazar; and just at the 
entrance of the bazar., a great manj^ black people 
were got together before a small house, or temple, 
in which was one of the false gods which the black 
people serve. These people had daubed themselves 
wdth red and yellow powder : and they had got tum- 
tums and trumpets, and were dancing and shouting 
before the wooden god that was in the temple. 
Then said Mrs. Browne, " We white people do the 
works of the devil ; but these black people are not 
contented to do the devil's work, but the}' must make 
a god of him. ' They worship devils, and idols of 
gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood ; 
which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk.'" Rev. 
ix. 20. 

Now the black people were so thick together be- 
fore the temple of their idol god, that Mary and Mrs. 
Browne had much difficulty to get by ; while they 
were almost deafened by the sound of their tum- 
tums and trumpets, accompanied with the noise of 
so many discordant voices. With great difficulty, 
however, they got through the crowd, and went on 
into the bazar ; where, just as they came into the 
main street, they saw before them, at a shoemaker's 



28 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

stall, the wife of one Corporal Price, together with 
her son, a great lad about twelve years old. 

So Mrs. Browne, when she came near to her, 
spoke, as her manner was to all the women of the 
regiment, very civilly, saying, " How do you do, 
Mrs. Price } and how is your husband }'' 

"Oh!" says Mrs. Price, "we are well enough, 
thank you, Mrs. Browne ; but I am plagued to 
death with this lad here, Dick Price. I came hither 
this afternoon to get him a pair of shoes, for the lad 
is almost barefoot ; and here is a pair that fits him 
to a nicety ; and the man would let me have them 
very cheap ; but Dick says, No ; he will have a pair 
of boots." 

" And so I will, mother," says Dick. 

"I tell you, lad," replies his mother, " they will 
do you no service : and they are a 7'upee a pair." 

" Mother," cries Dick, " don't tell me. I will 
have the boots, or go barefoot." 

" Well," says Mrs. Browne, " and if you were my 
son, you should go barefoot, till you knew better 
how to behave to your parents." 

" Oh !" answered Mrs. Price, " he is the saddest 
boy that ever lived, surely, and the daily plague of 
father and mother." 

All this time young Dick was putting on the 
boots ; and as soon as he had got them on, off' he 
ran, saying, " Now, mother, you may pay for them, 
or let it alone, just as you like ;" and away he went, 
shouting and laughing. Mrs. Browne was so angry 
with the boy that she could not help saying " Mrs., 
Price, if you do not chastise that lad soundly, he 
will, some day or other, make your heart ache. Do 



THE CATECHISM. 29 

you not know how the Bible directs us to deal with 
an undutiful child ? ' Thou shalt beat him with the 
rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.' " Prov. 
xxiii. 14. 

Mrs. Price made no answer, for it was not her 
way to correct her children. 

So Mrs. Browne took Mary's hand, and walked 
away ; and as soon as she was out of Mrs, Price's 
hearing, "Mary," said she, '-here is another of 
the devil's works. Did you mark how disobedient 
that bad boy was to his mother.'* I fear he will 
come to an ill end ; for it is written, ' The eye 
that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey 
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it 
out, and the young eagles shall eat it.' " Prov. 
XXX. 17. 

Mary. Godmother, I could not have thought, 
that in just going from our barracks to the bazar.^ we 
should have seen so many of the works of the 
devil. 

Mrs. Browne. Why, my dear, do you not know 
that the whole world lieth .n wickedness .f* and hence 
it is hard to step out of one's own door, or even to 
look out of the window, without seeing some of the 
works of the devil. But you, my dear child, will, I 
hope, renounce the devil and all his works ; steadily 
resolving that you will have nothing to do with him, 
and praying God to enable you, for his dear Son's 
sake, effectually to overcome him ; and the Lord 
assuredly will help you, according as it is written, 
" Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 
James iv. 7. 

Now, by this time, they were got to the door of the 
3* 



30 



STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 



Europe shop ; so Mary and Mrs. Browne ceased 
talking and went in. 

As it will take some time to tell you all that hap- 
pened in the Europe shop, I must put it off to another 
day, and end my story here. 




STORY V. 




The pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the 
sinful lusts of the fleshy 

OW the Europe shop into which Mrs. 
Browne and Mary went, was a very large 
one, and full of all sorts of things. One 
side was set out with Europe caps and bonnets, rib- 
bons, feathers, sashes, and what not. On another 
side were all kinds of necklaces, gold ear-rings, 
bracelets, coloured shoes, and many other things of 
which I cannot remember the one half. . Then there 
were dolls and toys of all kinds. In short, you can- 
not think of a thing that was not to be found in that 
shop. In the verandah also were many kinds of 
gaudy palanquins^ and fine furniture ; and even 
wheel carriages adorned with gold. 

The master of the shop was very busy just then in 
talking to two white women, belonging to the same 
regiment with Mrs. Browne and Mary. So Mrs. 
Browne, not willing to interrupt them, led Mary up 
to that end of the shop where most of the fine things 
were set out ; and she said, " Mary, these are some 
of the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, 
which I promised at your baptism that you should 

31 



32 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

renounce. We are apt to like fine clothes, fine 
coaches, fine furniture, together with all manner of 
gold and silver ornaments — and for this reason, be- 
cause we are all sinful and earthly, and because it is 
natural to us to love anything better than God ; but 
we do not please God when we desire to adorn our- 
selves and our houses with expensive finery, espe- 
cially when it is unsuited to the humble state of life 
to which he has called us. When princes use such 
things, they may be proper for such persons as signs 
of their place and power. Do you remember the 
verse upon this subject which I taught vou once?" 

JMa?y. Oh, yes, godmother, very well. " Whose 
adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of 
plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of put- 
ting on of apparel ; but let it be the hidden man of 
the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the 
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in 
the sight of God, of great price." i Peter iii. 3, 4. 

Mrs. Bro-ivne. W^ell remembered, Marv I I 
hope you will never grow up, my dear child, to love 
finery and vanity, or to follow after the pomps and 
vanities of this wicked world. " Love not the world, 
neither the things that are in the world. If any man 
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the 
Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth 
away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the 
will of God abideth for ever." i John ii. 15, 17. 

Now, by the time Mrs. Browne had repeated these 
verses, the master of the shop came up to her, and 
with him the two women ; one of whom was Mrs. 



THE CATECHISM. 33 

Simpson, and the other Mrs. Dawson, both ser- 
geants' wives in the regiment. " Your servant, Mrs. 
Browne," said Mrs. Simpson ; " who would have 
thought of seeing her here? You are come to buy 
something smart for your Httle goddaughter, I hope ; 
and to learn the fashions. Well, and it is time, sure 
enough ; for long as I have knowai you — six years, 
I believe — I have never seen you with a bit of any- 
thing smart about you. And your friend, Mrs. Mills, 
is just such another, or she surely would have put 
something rather smarter upon her little girl than 
that plain white bonnet." 

Mrs. Browne did not answer rudely, as some peo- 
ple are apt to do when others laugh at their clothes ; 
but she said, " Mrs. Simpson, my husband likes to 
see me plain, and I have no mind to be fine ; so we 
agree very well as to that matter." 

" Well," answered Mrs. Simpson, " if folks can 
please themselves, it is nothing to other folks, to be 
sure. But come, now, do buy your goddaughter a 
bonnet. Look, here is a pretty straw one, with red 
roses ; and here is another, with yellow flowers ; only 
four rupees a-piece : and w^hat's that to you ? You 
have plenty of money." Then Mrs. Simpson called 
Mary to her, and pulling off her white bonnet, and 
putting on the bonnet with yellow flowers, she held 
Mary up to the glass to look at herself. Mary, who 
was a silly little girl, admired herself amazingly in 
the yellow bonnet. She did not speak, to be sure, 
but she looked very hard at her godmother, as much 
as to say, Do, godmother, buy me this bonnet. 

But Mrs. Browne went up gently to Mary, and 
taking the fine bonnet off her head, she gave her her 

C 



34 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

own little white one again, saying, " Come, Mary, 
we must be looking for the thimble, or we shall be 
too late at home." So she led Mary away from the 
caps and bonnets ; and when she was out of Mrs. 
Simpson's hearing, '' Mary, my dear," she said, " if 
I had thought it right, and it had been proper, I 
would, with pleasure, have bought you that bonnet : 
but did I not promise at your baptism that you 
should renounce the pomps and vanities of this 
wicked world? How then could I act so wickedly as 
to become the first to lead you into them V 

Mrs. Browne then called to the master of the shop, 
saying, " Pray, Sir, show us some of your best Eu- 
rope silver thimbles." So Mary chose a thimble, 
which fitted her very well, and Mrs. Browne paid 
for it. After which Mary began to think how she 
should spend the four pice which her father had 
given her. 

So, after she had considered a while, she laid out 
one pice in needles, and one pice in thread, and one 
pice she paid for a little box to put her needles in, 
and her thread, and her thimble. Mrs. Browne was 
very well pleased at the manner in wdiich Mary had 
spent three of her pice ; but there was one pice still 
left, and Mary did not know how to spend it. 

They now left the shop, and went through the 
bazar ^ toward home ; and as they were going along, 
Mary saw some very n\ee guavas to be sold. Upon 
which she said, " Oh, godmother, do let me buy 
some of '^LO'&e guavas with this ^/c^ which is left." 

" What," said Mrs. Browne, " have you forgotten 
your father's charge not to buy any fruit !" 

Mary. Oh ! I did not remember it just then ; but 



THE CATECHISM. 35 

I do very muclT.long to have some of \ho^Q guavas. 
— And she stood still, just before the shop, looking at 
them. 

" Come, come, Mary," said Mrs. Browne, " that's 
very naughty. Have you not read in the Bible, how 
Eve desired the forbidden fruit, and how she was 
tempted to take it at last, and how she brought us, 
her children, to sin and death, by her wicked long- 
ing after the forbidden fruit .f* And now you are doing 
something like what Eve did. You are wishing for 
fruit, when your father said you must have none. 
Come away, and pray to God to forgive you this 
folly." 

When Mary heard what Mrs. Browne said, she 
was sorry, and came away immediately ; for she had 
not, at first, considered how wicked it was to stand 
and look and long for a thing, which her father had 
forbidden her to have. 

Then Mrs. Browne looked at Mary, and saw that 
she was ready to cry. So she said, "Mary, you 
have but one pice left : give it to the next blind or 
lame fakeer you see, and that will be spending it 
well ; and it will not tempt you any more to 
be naughty." So Mary hearkened to what Mrs. 
Browne said, and gave her pice to a poor blind 
man, whom she met just as she was coming out of 
the bazar. 

Now as they were coming home, Mrs. Browne 
spake thus to Mary : " I have explained to you, my 
dear, this evening, in some degree, what are those 
works of the devil which I promised, for you, that 
you should renounce. You know, also, what the 
pomps and vanities of this wicked world are, which 



36 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

you must also renounce. I will now tell you what 
the sinful lusts of the flesh are, which I also pro- 
mised that you should have nothing to do with. 
When we long after an3'thing which God has for- 
bidden, as you did just now for the giiavas in the 
bazar^ we then give way to one of the sinful lusts 
of the flesh. Suppose I was to desire as much 
ai'rack or gin as would intoxicate me ; then I should 
come into the same condemnation : and thus every 
one who longs after that which is forbidden, falls 
into these sinful lusts." 

Then said little Mary, " I was very wicked, god- 
mother, when I wished for that fruit ; and I am very 
sorry for it." 

Mi's. Brow72e. My dear, we are all, by nature, 
such poor sinful wretches that there is not a day, 
nor an hour, nor scarcely a moment, in which some 
evil thought does not come into our minds ; so that 
we have need alwavs to be watching asfainst them : 
and we must pray to God, in the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, to send his Holy Spirit into our hearts, 
to make them clean, and holy, and pure, destroy- 
ing in them every evil thought and every wicked 
desire. 

And as they proceeded, Mrs. Browne taught Mary 
these verses : " This I say then. Walk in the Spirit, 
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the 
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the 
other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the 
law." Gal. V. 16-18. 

By the time Mary had learned these verses they 



THE CATECHISM. 



37 



reached home : so Mrs. Browne took Mary to Mrs. 
Mills', and Mary showed her mother the box, with 
the thimble and needles and thread in it; nor did 
she hide from her mother how wicked she had been 
in wishing for the fruit. 
4 





STORY VI. 

^<- Secondly, that I should believe all the articles of the 
Christian faith?'' 

|NE day, Sergeant Browne being on guard, 
Mrs. Browne, as she often did on such occa- 
sions when she had sent her husband his 
dinner, came over to drink tea with Mrs. Mills, and 
she brought her work in her hand. 

Now while Mrs. Mills and Mrs. Browne were 
sitting at work together, and Mary on a mora be- 
tween them making her doll a frock, on a sudden 
they heard a man in the barracks, close by Mrs. 
Mills' window, beginning to swear; and, surely, he 
swore dreadfully. Mrs. Mills hereupon presently 
called out to him, saying, " Prithee, John Roberts, 
do not swear so. Do you not know that God takes 
account of every bad word that comes out of your 
mouth ?" 

John Roberts, however, did not forbear swearing ; 
though upon Mrs. Mills' reproof he moved to such 
a distance from her door as to be nearly out of 
hearing. 

Then said Mrs. Browne, "You told John Roberts 
that God heard every word he said. He is afraid of 

38 



THE CATECHISM. 39 

offending you, I see, because your husband is pay- 
sergeant ; and so he retires from your door. But if 
he had the fear of God, he would know that God 
could hear at one end of the barracks as well as 
another." 

Mrs. Mills. Poor wicked man ! I imagine he 
believes not much respecting either God or the devil. 

Mrs. Browne. Alas ! alas ! unhappy creature, 
then he is a lost man indeed. For though there are 
too many among us, I fear, who have not a right 
faith, yet, I hope, there are not many so hardened as 
to call in question the very being of God. I re- 
member hearing our good parson, Mr. King, preach 
on this text: "Without faith it is impossible to 
please God ; for he that cometh to God must believe 
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him." Heb. xi. 6. 

" And do you remember," asked Mrs. Mills, "how 
he expounded that text?" 

Mrs. Browne. My husband was at the pains of 
putting down some part of that sermon when he 
came home, and so I had an opportunity of refresh- 
ing my memory with what he wrote. 

Mrs. Mills. I should be glad to hear what you 
can recollect on the subject. 

" Why," replied Mrs. Browne, " he described faith 
to be twofold, or of two different kinds ; asserting 
that botli were necessary to salvation, as the text 
expresses it : ' He that comes to God must believe,* 
first, ' that God is ;' and secondly, ' that he is a re- 
warder of them that seek him.' 'It is not enough,' 
said Mr. King, ' that a man should believe that there 
is a God, and then to suppose, as the Hindoos think 



40 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

of their great god, that he is so full of his own 
power and goodness, and happiness, that he never 
troubles himself about men. Such a faith is a dead 
faith : it has no power to make a man better, because 
it touches not the heart ; whence it ought to spring, 
and which it ought to influence.' Moreover, Mr. 
King reminded us, that we read of some who heard 
the word of God, and received it with joy, and be- 
lieved it for a while, but having no root, fell away. 
Luke viii. 13. Thus merely believing that there is 
a God, will produce no saving effect upon the soul ; 
while that faith which is described in the second 
part of the text, as believing that God is a rewarder 
of them that diligently seek him, will influence a 
man to cry out, ' What must I do to be saved T (Acts 
xvi. 30), and cause him gladly to receive the offer of 
salvation, through the blood of Christ. This second 
kind of faith is that whereby we are justified — a faith 
which worketh by love, and w^hich purifieth the 
heart." 

Little Mary had laid down her doll's frock, and 
had been listening to jSIrs. Browne while she was 
speaking ; and when she had done she said, " God- 
mother, I cannot understand wdiat you have been 
saying. What is faith V 

Mrs. Browne. My dear, it is not very easy to 
make you understand what it is, but I will try. I 
have been saying to your mother, that there are two 
kinds of faith : one of which is a dead faith, because 
it has no power to make men better : and the other 
is a living faith, because it makes the heart clean. 
Did you ever see the king of England, Mary.? 

Mary. No, godmother. 



THE CATECHISM. 41 

Mrs. Browne. Do you believe that there is such 
a person ? 

Mary. Yes, godmother. 

Mrs. Brotune. You have faith, then, that there 
is such a person, but so far your faith is a dead faith, 
my child. Your believing that there is a king of 
England makes you neither better nor worse : but 
suppose you could believe that the king of England 
knew everything that you did, and would punish 
you for every fault you committed ; how mightily 
would this belief work upon you ! 

Mary. Oh ! then I should try to please the king. 

Mrs. Browne. Then your faith would become a 
living fiiith. It would be no longer dead. At any 
rate, it would make you fear to transgress the king's 
law. Did you ever see God, Mary? 

Mary. Oh no, never. I know a verse about 
that : " No man hath seen God at any time." John 
i. 18. 

Mrs. Browne. But do you think there is a God.? 

Mary. Yes, I am sure there is a God ; quite 
sure. 

Mrs. Browne. Then you have faith so far as re- 
lates to the being of God. This is a dead faith, if 
you believe no more concerning him. 

Mary. But I do believe more. I believe that he 
sent his Son to die for me, and that if I love him I 
shall be saved. 

Mrs. Browne. Many have known and believed 
as much as you do, Mary, and yet have not been 
saved. Many have prophesied and preached in the 
name of the Lord, who (we are told) will be cast 
out in the last day. If you wish to be saved by faith, 



42 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

you must not onl}^ believe that God sent his Son to 
die for you, but you must receive the Saviour with 
all your heart. You must not trust to any other 
method of salvation. You must not think that 3'ou 
can save yourself by anything you can do, and you 
must be willing to be saved by God, in his own way. 

Alary. Godmother, how do we know what is 
true about God, and what is not true? 

Mrs. Bro%V7ie. Everything that is necessary to be 
known about God is written in the Bible, and we 
must believe everything that is in the Bible. I 
promised for you, Mary, at your baptism, that you 
should believe all the articles of the Christian faith ; 
I will, therefore, try to make you understand what 
things they are which you ought to believe. You 
say you believe in God, Mary? 

Mary. Yes, godmother, I do. But then I don't 
know much about him, though I have read the Bible 
very often. 

Mrs. Browne. There is but one God, Mary ; yet 
there are three divine persons — three persons in one 
God. 

Mary. I have heard that before, and I know 
what these three persons are — God the Father, God 
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. And I know a 
verse about them : " The grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of 
the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore." 2 Cor. 
xiii. 14. 

Mrs. Browne. Can you tell me what these three 
holy persons are called ? 

Mary. The Holy Trinity. 

Mrs. Browne. I promised for you, at yoin* bap- 



THE CATECHISM. 43 

tism, to believe In this Holy Trinity. When you 
were baptized, you could not answer for yourself; 
but now you are getting older you must attend to 
these things, and pray to God to give that faith which 
may preserve you in a state of salvation. 

Ad^ary. Please to ask me more questions, god- 
mother, that you may see what I know, and what I 
don't know. 

Mi's. Browize. What did God the Father do for 
you ? 

Mary. He made me and all the world } 

Mrs. Browne. How do you know that he made 
you and all the world! Did you see him make the 
world ? 

Mary. No, to be sure ; it was made long before 
I was born. 

Mrs. Browne. Then by what means do you know 
that he made the world? 

Mary thought a little while, at last she said, " By 
faith I know that God made the world." 

Mrs. Brow^ne and Mrs. Mills were both pleased 
with Mary's answer, and Mrs. Browne showed 
Mary a very pretty verse about it: "Through faith 
we understand that the worlds were framed by the 
word of God. So that things which are seen were 
not made of things which do appear." Heb. xi. 3. 

Then Mrs. Browne asked Mary what God the Son 
had done for her. 

Mary. He died for me and all mankind upon the 
cross. 

Mrs. Browne. What was the Son of God called 
when in this world? 

Mary. The Lord Jesus Christ. 



44 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Airs. Bro'W7ie. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? 

Mary. The Son of God. 

Mrs. Browjie. Is he as great as God the Father ? 

Mary. I don't know. 

Mrs. Browne. Look, my dear, at Philippians ii. 
5-1 1 : " Let this mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ Jesus ; who, being in the form of God, thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God ; but made him- 
self of no reputation, and took upon him the form 
of a servant, and vv'as made in the likeness of men ; 
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name which is above 
every name ; that at the name of Jesus everyknee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth ; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father." By these verses, you see, my 
dear, that Jesus Christ is as great as God the Father. 
Can you tell me how the Lord Jesus Christ came 
into this world? 

Mary. He was born like a baby. 

Mrs. Browne. Who was his mother? 

Mary. The Virgin Mary. 

Mrs. Browne. Who is his father? 

Mary. God, the Father Almighty. 

Mrs. Browne. How did he die? 

Mary. He was crucified for our sins, upon the 
cross. 

Mrs. Browne. Under whom, that is, by whose 
order, was he crucified ? 

Mary. Under Pontius Pilate. 



THE CATECHISM. 45 

Mrs. Broivne. Was the Lord buried ? 

Mary. Yes : he was buried in the sepulchre of 
Joseph of Arimathea. 

Mrs. Browne. Where did the spirit of the Lord 
Jesus Christ go when his body was in the grave ? 

Mary. He went down into hell. 

Mrs. Browne. What do you mean by his going 
into hell ? 

Mary. I don't know. 

Mrs. Browne. We now use the word Hell., 
for the place of torment only ; but in old times it 
answered to the word Hades., which is the word in 
the Greek, used by the Apostles, for the Place of 
Departed Spirits. In that place, there is a blessed 
portion separated from the wicked, called Abraham^s 
Bosom, and Paradise. We learn from Acts ii. 27, 
that our Lord went into the Place of Departed 
Spirits., and from St. Luke xxiii. 43, that he went 
into that portion of it called Paradise. There, also, 
Lazarus was carried by angels, while the rich man 
went into the other part of Hades., a place of tor- 
ment. St. Luke xvi. 23. How long was our Lord's 
body in the grave ? 

Mary. Three days. 

Mrs. Browne. After those three days, what 
happened .'' 

Mary. The Lord rose from the grave. 

Mrs. Browne. Whither then did he go } 

Mary. He went up into heaven. 

Mrs. Brow7ie. And where is he now? 

Mary. Sitting at the right hand of God. 

Mrs. Browne. Will he ever again come down 
from heaven.? 



40 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mary. Yes : he will come at the end of the 
world, to judge all people. 

Mrs. Browne. Who is the third person in the 
Holy Trinity? 

Mary. The Holy Ghost. 

Mrs. Browne. What does the Holy Ghost do for 
you .? 

Mary. He cleanses my heart from sin. 

Mrs. Browne. What is the Church of God, or 
the Holy Catholic Church ? 

Mary. The Catholic Church is made up of all 
the Christians w^ho profess the true faith and live in 
the apostles' fellowship. (Acts ii. 42), and Christ is 
the head of it. 

Mrs. Browne. What is signified by the Com- 
munion of Saints? 

Mary. I don't know. 

Mrs. Browne. It signifies that holy fellowship, 
or brotherhood, which is maintained between the 
children of God ; by which they all partake of one 
Spirit., and by him of one faith, one baptism, and 
one atonement for sin, and do all enjoy the same 
hope of glory. Ephesians iv. 4. What does the 
Bible teach you about the forgiveness of sins ? 

Mary. The Bible teaches me, that, if I believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, my sins shall be forgiven me. 

Airs. Browne. Is there no way of having our 
sins forgiven us but through the Lord Jesus Christ? 

Mary. I can answer that by a verse which my 
father taught me : " Neither is there salvation in any 
other ; for there is none other name under heaven 
given among men, whereby we must be saved." 
Acts iv. 12. 



THE CATECHISM. 47 

Mrs. Browne. What will become of your body, 
after it is dead and reduced to a state of corruption ? 

Mary. I know some verses about that : " We 
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed. For this corruptible must put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 
I Cor. XV. 51-53. 

Mrs. Browne was pleased with Mary's answers ; 
and she said, " Come, Mary, one or two more ques- 
tions, and I have done for to-day. What is eternal 
life ?" 

Mary. Going to heaven, to live for ever with 
God. 

Mrs. Browne. What is eternal death } 

Mary. Going to dwell, for ever in the place pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. 

By this time tea being ready, Mrs. Browne left off 
questioning Mary. And after drinking tea, she went 
home ; promising Mrs. Mills and Mary shortly to 
come again. 



STORY VII. 



Thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will afid com- 
mandments, and walk in Hie same all the days of my 
life:' 




ITTLE MARY having now been tolerably 
good for some time, answering her ques- 
tions well, and needing no punishment, her 
father, who loved her very much, bought her some 
cloth to make her a new white frock. Her mother 
made it, and sent it to the dobee; and it came home 
on Saturday night. 

Now Mary was to spend the next day with her 
godmother Browne ; and her mother said she should 
put on the new frock to go in. 

Mary therefore thought of nothing but the new 
frock till she fell asleep that night ; and the new 
frock was the very first thing that came into her 
head the next morning. 

She wanted her mother to put it on as soon as she 
was out of bed on Sunday morning ; and she was, 
I am sorry to say, very sulky when her mother said 
she was not to have it on till after breakfast. But 
Mrs. Mills, being busy, did not observe Mary's ill 
temper on the occasion ; or else I am sure she 

48 



THE CATECHISM. 49 

would have chastised her : for she was not of Mrs. 
Price's mind, who never corrected her child. She 
had given Mary many and many a good whipping ; 
and so had the sergeant too, for the matter of that : 
for they both remembered that it is written : " Fool- 
ishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod 
of correction shall drive it far from him." Prov. 
xxii. 15. But, be it as it would, Mary got no cor- 
rection that morning, though she wanted it very 
much. So, after breakfast, her mother washed her, 
and put on the new frock ; and, giving her her Bible 
and Prayer-Book, wrapped in a clean pocket-hand- 
kerchief, she sent her to her godmother Browne, 
with whom she was to go to church : for Mrs. Mills 
was not well enough to go to church that day her- 
self, and the sergeant was on guard. 

So Miss Mary set off in her new frock : and so 
mightily well satisfied was she with herself, that she 
c^uld not walk like anybody else ; but was looking 
at herself behind and before, and making quite a 
simpleton of herself. 

When she came to her godmother Browne's, she 
found Mrs. Browne sitting at the door, ready to go 
to church as soon as the bell should begin to ring. 
Mrs. Browne was glad to see Mary, and made her 
sit down by her on a mora. 

So Mary sat down, and spread her frock out upon 
her knees, and pretended to shake the dust off it, 
with twenty other little tricks, to draw her god- 
mother's attention to her new frock : but Mrs. 
Browne was thinking of something else, and never 
perceived any difference in Mary's dress from what 
she wore every Sunday. 

5 D 



so STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

The bell not yet beginning to ring, Mrs. Browne 
thought she would ask Mary a few questions. So 
she said to her, " Mary, my dear, what was the third 
thing I promised for you at your baptism ?" 

Mary. Oh ! I know very well, godmother. It 
was this : that I should keep God's holy will and 
commandments, and walk in the same all the days 
of my life. 

Afrs. Browne. Very well, my dear : and can 
you tell me how many commandments there are.'* 

Mary. Oh, yes ! There are ten. 

Mrs. Browne then made Mary repeat to her 
the ten commandments ; and Mary said them very 
well. 

After which Mrs. Browme asked her, if she 
thought there ever was a man in the world who had 
kept all the commandments of God? 

Mary thought a while. — At last she said, "No, 
godmother, I think not, except the Lord Jesus Christ 
when he was in the world ; he kept them all." 

Mrs. Browne. True, my dear ; the Lord Jesus 
Christ never broke any of the laws of God ; but as 
to us poor creatures, there is not a day, nor an hour, 
nor perhaps even a minute, when left to ourselves, 
in which we do not break some of the command- 
ments. 

" Not a day, nor an hour, nor scarcely a minute.^" 
said Mary. " Dear godmother, I could not have 
thought that we break God's commandments so 
often. I don't think I have broken any of them 
lately." 

Mrs. Browne was surprised to hear jSIary boast in 
this manner, for she had not heard her boasting of 



THE CATECHISM. 51 

her goodness for a long, long while. So she turned 
and looked hard at her, thinking to herself, What's 
the matter now, that my little goddaughter is so full 
of herself to-day? and as she looked at her, she 
spied the new frock, and guessed how things went. 
However, she said nothing about the frock ; but, 
putting her hand into her pocket, she pulled out a 
new little book, fresh from Europe, with a gilt cover, 
saying, "Mary, I met with this little book yesterday, 
and if you do not break one of the ten command- 
ments before we come from church, I will make you 
"a present of it." 

" Oh ! godmother, thank you !" said Mary : " and 
I have got a bit of pink silk, which my mother gave 
me, and I will make a bag for it, with a button and 
a string." 

" Stop ! Stop !" says Mrs. Browne : " stay till you 
have got the book, before you make the bag." 

Mary. Oh ! I don't fear, I shall get it. Surely, I 
shall not break one of the commandments at church, 
of all places ! 

Mrs. Browne. Well, do you see to that, Mary. 
You know that's your business — not mine. 

By this time the bell began to ring, and Mary and 
Mrs. Browne walked toward the church. 

Now, as they went along the road, they saw be- 
fore them, and behind them, and on all sides of 
them, people going to church also ; and Mary 
looked to see if anybody was admiring her new 
frock, but nobody took an}' notice of it, till, just as 
they came to the church gate, they overtook Mrs. 
Simpson. Mrs. Simpson found out Mary's new 
frock in a moment ; for she was one of those women 



52 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

who examine everything that people have on, from 
head to foot : and she pretended to understand the 
fashions as well as the finest lady in the place. 
When she saw Mary, she called out to her, "So, so, 
you have got a new frock ; and very handsome it is, 
and good cloth, and well made too ; and you look 
very well in it. Who made it for you ? It's quite 
in the fashion : sure, that's not your mother's work ?" 
Mary had no time to answer, for the clergyman was, 
by this time, got into the church, and all the people 
hastened in after him. But though she had not 
time to answer Mrs. Simpson, yet she was mightily 
pleased with what had been said about her frock ; 
and she became more proud than ever of herself, 
and of her dress, thinking of nothing but her clothes 
all church-time. She repeated the prayers in the 
Prayer-Book after the clergyman, it is true ; but she 
thought no more of their meaning all the time than 
her godmother's parrot would have done, had it 
been taught to repeat the same prayers. And in the 
Litany, at the very time when she was saying, " Lord 
have mercy upon us, miserable sinners," she was 
thinking. What a nice, pretty little girl I am, and 
how good ; — so far was she from humbling herself 
before God. 

Now Mrs. Browne knew well enough what Mary's 
thoughts were running upon ; for even when the 
child was kneeling down, she was turning to look at 
her sleeves, or at the tucks of her frock, or at the 
muslin bows which fastened her waistband. How- 
ever, Mrs. Browne said nothing to her in the church, 
nor when church was over as they walked home, 
because there were so many people about them ; but 



THE CATECHISM. 53 

when she got into her own berth., "Mary," she said, 
"do you think I am to give you the book?" 

"I hope so, godmother," said Mary. 

" But," says Mrs. Browne, " have you not broken 
any of God's commandments since you left this 
house to go to church ?" 

Mai'y. No, godmother, I have not : I have been 
very good. 

" Good !" says Mrs. Browne ; " there is none good, 
but God. I beheve, Mary, if I were to be hard upon 
you, I could show you that, since you left this house, 
you have broken several of God's commandments ; 
but I will only speak of one w^hich, I fear, you have 
broken twenty and twenty times." 

Mary stared at her godmother, and turned very 
red : she could not think what she meant. 

Mrs. Browne. What is the third commandment, 
Mary .? 

Mary. The third commandment.^^ — Oh! it is, 
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that 
taketh his name in vain. — Dear godmother, I have 
not been swearing. 

Mrs. Browne. No, my dear, I did not say you 
had ; but there are a great many ways of taking 
God's name in vain, besides swearing. Pray how 
many times did you use the name of the Lord God 
in your prayers at church to-day.? 

Mary, Why, godmother, I should be a long time 
counting the times ; that name comes ever so often. 

Mrs. Browne. And pray, Mary, to-day at church, 
what where you thinking of while you were repeat- 
ing the holy name of your God.^* Come, my child, 

5 «- 



54 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

be honest ; and do not add sin to sin by denying the 
truth. 

Mary looked very much vexed, yet would she not 
tell a lie. '' Why, godmother," said she, " I will own 
the truth, whether I lose the book or not : I thought 
of nothing at church but my frock." 

Mrs. Browne. You have done well to speak the 
truth, my dear. And now'^tell me how you broke 
the third commandment at church. 

Mary. By thinking of my clothes, and of foolish 
things while I was repeating the holy name of God. 

Mrs. Browne. True, Mary ; you took the sacred 
name of God in vain, and that not once or twice, 
but, as I said before, twenty and twenty times, 
thereby offending the majesty of God, who knows 
the most secret thoughts of our hearts. 

The tears came into Mary's eyes, to think how 
wncked she had been ; and Mrs. Browne, seeing her 
grieved, said, "My dear, pray to God to forgive you 
what is past ; and I will give you another chance for 
the book. It is now two hours till dinner-time : if I 
do not find you breaking one of the commandments 
before dinner, you shall have the book to take home 
with you to-night." 

Mary was a little comforted with this promise, 
and resolved to try again for the book ; and she was 
resolved that she would have the book this time. 
So, to make herself, as she thought, perfectly sure, 
she took her Bible and a mora., and went and sat in 
one corner of the room ; thinkinj^ to herself, I will 
not stir till dinner-time, and, surelv, I cannot break 
one of the commandments while I am sitting here 
with my Bible in my hand. For half an hour, Mary 



THE CATECHISM. 55 

seemed to do well, and made sure of the book ; but, 
unluckily for her, just as the clock struck twelve, 
there came into Mrs. Browne's room, one Mrs. 
James, and her daughter Kitty James, who was just 
Mary's age. Mrs. James was the sergeant-major's 
wife, and she called to ask Mrs. Browne how she 
did. Mrs. James was one that loved finery very 
much, and always dressed her daughter in the best 
and smartest of everything : accordingly, Kitty 
James had on a wrought muslin frock, much finer 
than Mary's, with a pink sash and pink slippers, 
and white beads round her neck. 

So Mrs. James sat down, and Kitty placed herself 
upon a mora by her, just opposite Mary ; and Mrs. 
James began talking to Mrs. Browne. All this 
time little Mary's eyes were upon Kitty's sash and 
fine shoes ; and she could not help wishing for them, 
till she became quite uneasy, so much did she long 
for them. Mrs. James sat talking till the dinner- 
drum beat, when she got up and went away ; and 
then Mary, rising from her mora., ran up to her god- 
mother, and said, " Oh ! godmother, what a beautiful 
sash ! I wish — I wish I had it." 

"Mary! Mary!" said Mrs. Browne, "fie! fie! 
How can you allow yourself to covet and desire 
what is not your own?" 

Soon after this the dinner was brought in, and 
Mary said, "Now, godmother, for the book. It is 
dinner-time, and I have not broken any of the com- 
mandments since I came in from church." 

Mrs. Browne. Stop, stop, Mary : do not be too 
sure of that. 

Mary. Why, godmother, how can I have broken 



S^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

a commandment since church? I have been sitting 
in that corner till this very minute. 

Mrs. Bro'-jcne. Yet you have broken a com- 
mandment, I assure you. 

Mary. Nay, godmother, nay. I ought to have 
the book. I have been very good. 

Mrs. Bro-jone. Indeed, Mary, you have not been 
very good ; for, to my knowledge, you have broken 
one commandment, at least, since church-time. 

Mary looked rather cross, and said, " What com- 
mandment, godmother.^" 

Mrs. Bro-ivne. What is the tenth, Mary.? 

Mary. The tenth commandment.? — Thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, 
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his. 

Mrs. Browjie. Pray, my dear, did you not but 
just now covet and desire Kitty James' sash,? 

Mary could not deny that she had done so ; so she 
sat down to dinner with Sergeant and jSIrs. Browne, 
without her book ; and she could scarcely eat her 
dinner because she was so vexed. However, Mrs. 
Browne once more comforted her by saying, " Mary, 
I will give you another chance for the book. If I do 
not find you out breaking one of the commandments 
before the bugle sounds for parade, you shall have 
the book to take home with you." 

Mary thanked her godmother, and determined to 
try for it again. 

Now there was in the same barrack, but at the 
other end of it, a woman who was very sick, and 
Mrs. Browne used to go very often to see her ; so, 
after dinner, the sergeant said to his wife, "Do you 



THE CATECHISM. 57 

go now to see Sally Jones, and I will take care of 
Mary." Mrs. Browne then gave Mary a hymn-book 
to read, and went to see Mrs. Jones, leaving Mary 
and her husband together in the berth. 

The sergeant took his Bible in his hand, and sat 
down, bidding Mary also to sit down to her book ; 
and presently, being much engaged with his Bible, 
the sergeant quite forgot that he had taken charge of 
Mary. 

Mary sat a little while reading very busily ; but 
presently she got tired of reading, and began to count 
the leaves of her book ; and behold, while she was 
counting the leaves, she heard a monkey chattering 
in the verandah. So up she must get to look at the 
monkey, and out she must go into the verandah. 
And in the verandah were two or three rude chil- 
dren, riding on sticks. Miss Mary presently found 
a stick too ; and when Sergeant Browne bethought 
himself of Mary, and looked to see where she was, 
she was coursing up and down the verandah^ though 
it was Sunday, upon a stick, with most of the rude 
boys in the barrack. The sergeant was sadly vexed 
at her. He soon brought her back, and tied her to 
the foot of the bed with his pocket handkerchief; 
bidding her repeat the fourth commandment to her- 
self, and try to keep it better another time. It was 
a sad tale to tell Mrs. Browne when she came back, 
how Mary had been romping and rioting on a Sun- 
day evening, with all the rude lads in the barrack. 
Mary cried, and was very humble, and said, " God- 
mother, I have done very wrong. I have broken 
one of God's commandments again. I am a wicked 
girl." 



58 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. Browne untied her, and took her upon her 
lap, and kissed her, saying, "Mary, I am glad to see 
you so humble and sorry for what you have done ; 
and I hope, my dear child, that you will never again 
boast, and say that you are able to keep God's com- 
mandments ; for know, m}^ dear, that in us (that is, 
in our flesh) ' dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is 
present with us ; but how to perform that which is 
good we find not. For the good that we would, we 
do not ; but the evil which we would not, that we 
do.' " Rom. vii. i8, 19. 

Then said Mary, " You may put away that pretty 
little book, godmother, for I shall never gain it, I am 
sure." 

]\frs. Browne. What ! won't you try again to- 
morrow, Mary } 

Mary. Oh ! no, no, godmother ; for I shall never 
get it by my own goodness. I now know that I am 
a miserable sinner, though I did not know it this 
morning at church. 

Mrs. Browne. Then, my dear child, you have 
learned the best lesson you ever learned in your 
life. 

Mary cried and sobbed very much, and said, 
" Godmother, if I cannot be good half an hour, to 
gain this little book, how can I be good all my life, 
to gain heaven?" 

Mrs. Browne. If there was no getting to heaven 
but by our own goodness, my dear child, we should 
none of us ever get there. 

Mary. But will God take me to heaven with all 
my sins and wickedness.? Godmother, I am not fit 
to go to heaven. 



THE CATECHISM. 59 

Mi'S. Browne. Certainly not. But if you believe 
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be washed from 
your sins by his blood ; and the righteousness of the 
Lord Jesus Christ will be given you ; for the sake of 
which you will be taken to heaven ; and your heart 
will be made clean, and white, and pure, so that you 
will be enabled even upon earth to love God and 
keep his commandments. 

Mary. Oh ! godmother, I know now why I have 
been so wicked to-day. I have not loved the Lord 
Jesus Christ to-day ; but I have loved myself all day, 
and therefore I could not keep God's commandments, 
because I did not love him. 

Then Mrs. Browne taught Mary these verses : 
"Jesus answered and said unto him. If a man love 
me, he will keep my words ; and my Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth 
not my sayings ; and the word which ye hear is not 
mine, but the Father's which sent me." John xiv. 
23, 24. 

By the time Mary had learned these verses, it was 
parade-time, so Mrs. Browne sent her home. But 
before they parted, she kissed her, and said, " I hope, 
my child, that you will remember what has happened 
to-day, and bear in mind continually, that if we all 
had what we deserved, it would not be heaven and 
a crown of glory, but hell and the lake which burns 
with fire and brimstone ; and that we have nothing 
to trust to but the cross of Christ. " God forbid that 
we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto us, and 
we unto the world." Gal. vi. 14. 



6o STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

When little Mary got home, she told her mother 
all that had happened ; and Mrs. Mills felt very much 
obliged to Mrs. Browne for the pains she had taken 
with her little girl ; and Mary went to bed more 
humble, I am glad to say, than she got up. 





STORY VIII. 

Continuation upon the Cojnmandments. 

T happened the next day, that a lady in the 
regiment (being taken ill) sent for Mrs. 
Mills to nurse her ; for Mrs. Mills was a 
nice woman among sick people. And while her 
mother was out, Mary was sent to Mrs. Browne to 
stay both day and night. 

Mary spent her time very pleasantly with Mrs. 
Browne. In the morning she used to work, and to 
spell, and to learn her verses ; and after dinner she 
read aloud, while Mrs. Browne sewed ; and in the 
evening they took a walk, and while they were walk- 
ing, they used to talk, and Mrs. Browne would ask 
Mary many questions, and teach her many pretty 
things. 

The first evening that Mary was at Mrs. Browne's, 
Mrs. Browne took Mary to walk in a very pleasant 
garden, about half a mile from the barracks. This 
garden belonged to a black man, who was very civil, 
and would let Mrs. Browne come in at all times, be- 
cause she never meddled with anything. 

It was a garden full of fine flowers, and set with 
tall shady trees, in which were doves and nightin- 
gales. Now I will relate to you what Mrs. Browne 
and Mary talked of as they walked in this garden. 
6 61 



62 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

And first, Mary said, " Godmother, I have been 
thinking all day how naughty I was yesterday ; and, 
not only yesterday, but what a poor miserable sinner 
I have been all my life, and how many, and many 
and many times I have broken God's command- 
ments." 

Mrs. Browne. The reason, my dear, why we 
break God's commandments so often is because we 
do not really love the Lord Jesus Christ. If the love 
of Christ was always in our hearts, we should not be 
so continually sinning as we now are. If you were.to 
read the fourteenth chapter of St. John, and consider 
it well, you would find that those people who love 
the Lord Jesus Christ are enabled to keep his com- 
mandments ; and that those who do not love him, do 
not keep his commandments. 

Mary. Oh ! godmother, I can say several verses 
out of that chapter of St. John : " He that hath my 
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of 
my Father ; and I will love him, and will manifest 
myself to him." John xiv. 21. And then there is 
another verse, which you taught me yesterday, when 
I had been riding on a stick in the verandah^ which 
has almost the same meaning. 

Mrs. Browne. Now can you tell me, Mary, why 
you did not keep God's commandments yesterday.? 

Mary. Because I did not love the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Mrs. Browne. Suppose you had loved him a 
little, do you think you should have kept his com- 
mandments better yesterday ? 

Mary. Yes ; I think I should. 



THE CATECHISM. 63 

Mrs. Browne. And suppose that yesterday you 
had loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, 
and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and 
with all your strength, do you think you would 
have broken any of his commandments at all? 

Mary. No, godmother, not if I had loved him 
with all my might ; for then his Holy Spirit would 
have been in my heart, and I should have done 
everything right. 

Mrs. Browne. True, Mary. It is then because 
we do not love the Lord Jesus Christ that we fall 
into sin. If we loved God entirely, we should not 
require to be held to our duty by strong laws en- 
forced by severe penalties. For, as St. Paul says, 
" Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the 
evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? 
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise 
of the same : for he is the minister of God to thee 
for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be 
afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain ; for he 
is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath 
upon him that doeth evil." Romans xiii. 3, 4. 

By this time Mrs. Browne and Mary were come 
to a bench, under some sweet-smelling trees. Then 
said Mrs. Browne, " Let us sit down, Mary, on this 
bench, and I will tell you a story." So they both 
sat down, and Mrs. Browne told Mary a story. 



THE STORY OF THE GARDEN. 

A great many years ago, there lived, in this 
garden, a certain gardener, who had the care of 
three little boys ; and these little boys used to work 



64 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

in his garden. These boys' names were Fijou, and 
Paton, and Juman. Fijou'was a good-tempered boy, 
and loved his master so much that he would not do 
him an ill turn for the world ; but tried to please 
him in everything : neither would he hurt a tree, 
nor a flower, nor anything belonging to his master, 
upon any account. Paton liked his master very 
well, but loved himself better : accordingly, he did 
not think of serving his master so much as of 
pleasing himself. He would be pulling the fruit in 
the garden, and eating it ; running over the flowers, 
or breaking them ; and so doing a great deal of 
mischief, though he did not intend it. But Juman, 
the third of these boys, quite hated his master, and 
sought every way of spiting him, hurting his trees 
and plants, and killing the birds which his master 
loved. 

Now Paton and Juman did so much mischief that 
the gardener was forced to make laws for them. 
The first law was, that they were not to gather fruit, 
without asking his leave ; the second law was, that 
they were not to throw stones at the birds ; the third 
law was, that they were not to break the heads of 
the flowers. But the gardener made no laws for 
Fijou, because Fijou loved his master, and " love 
worketh no ill to his neighbour : therefore love is 
the fulfilling of the law." Romans xiii. 10. 

Now it happened, once upon a time, that the 
gardener must needs go to a bazar ^ a great way off', 
to sell his fruit ; and must be out two or three days. 
So, before he went, he called his boys ; and to Fijou 
he said, '• Fijou, love me till I come back." But to 
Juman and Paton he repeated his laws, to wit : Do 



THE CATECHISM. 65 

not gather any fruit ; do not throw stones at the 
birds ; and do not break the heads of the flowers. 
"Moreover," he added, " if you do not remember 
my laws, and keep them, I will punish you on my 
return with a very sore punishment." So the gar- 
dener went his way. Now when he was gone, 
Fijou, still remembering his master, and loving him 
as if he were present, tried all in his power to do 
him service ; he watered his flowers, fed his birds, 
and guarded his fruit. But the wicked Juman said, 
" Our master is gone, and will not come back for 
many days, so I will eat the fruit of the garden, and 
trample the flowers under my feet, and kill the birds 
for my sport, for I hate my master." Then Paton, 
when he saw" Juman eating the fruit, thought he 
should like some too, for he loved himself better 
than his master ; so he gathered and ate, and broke 
the laws also, as Juman did. 

After a few days, the gardener came home : and 
when he had taken account of the boys, he took the 
faithful Fijou into his house, and made him as his 
son ; but Juman and Paton he cast out of his garden, 
and they became coolies in the bazar. 

Then said Mrs. Browne, " Which of these boys 
were you like yesterday.?" 

Mary. I think I was like Paton ; for though I 
did not hate God so much as Juman did his master, 
yet I did not love him well enough to keep his laws. 

Mrs. Browne. And should you like to be cast 
out as Paton was, and to have your portion with the 
wicked } 

Mary. No, no, godmother. 
6* E 



66 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. Browjie. But I tell you, Mary, if you do 
not love God, you will be cast into hell; for -'the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them that know not God, and that obey not the 
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 
2 Thess. i. 7-9. 

" Oh !" said Mary, " I wish I could love the Lord 
Jesus Christ as Fijou loved his master ! then I 
should indeed be his child, and he would take me to 
heaven." 

Mrs. Browne. If you really wish, Mary, to love 
God, you must entreat him to send his Holy Spirit 
to change your vile and sinful nature, and to excite 
in you this divine love. 

Mary. I will pray, godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. And you must read your Bible 
often. The Bible is God's book, and it speaks of 
all the great and kind things which the Lord God 
hath done for us, and how much he hath loved us 
sinful creatures. " For God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." John iii. 16. And you should think about 
the Lord Jesus when you are lying in your bed at 
night, and when you are getting up, and when you 
are sitting at work, and through every part of the 
day. You should think how much he suffered to 
save you from going to hell ; how he came down 
from heaven, and became a poor weak baby, and 
lived thirty-three years in the world, in poverty, and 



/ 



Cc 




''As they went back through the garden, Mary could not but notice the beauty 
of the flowers and trees, the roses and the jessamine, and the orange trees bend- 
ing under the weight of their golden fruit, with the pleasant sound of the doves 
and the nightingales, who were beginning their evening song." — Page 67. 



THE CATECHISM. 67 

in great hardships ; and how at last he was nailed 
upon the cross, and died a cruel death, to save you 
from perdition. Surely, you cannot think of all 
these things, without loving him who endured so 
much for you? 

Then said little Mary, " Ah ! godmother, how 
wicked I am not to love him more !" 

Mrs. Browne. Then let that thought, my dear, 
make you feel very humble ; and let it lead you, 
from the bottom of your heart to say (what indeed 
we have all cause enough to join in), Lord, Lord, I 
am a miserable sinner ! 

It was now time for Mrs. Browne and Mary to re- 
turn home ; so they got up from their seats, and as 
they went back through the garden, Mary could not 
but notice the beauty of the flowers and trees — the 
roses and the jessamine, and the orange trees bending 
under the weight of their golden fruit, with the 
pleasant sound of the doves and the nightingales, 
just then beginning their evening song. 

Then said Mrs. Browne: ''What is this garden, 
pretty as it is, compared with that better place which 
our Redeemer hath prepared for them that love 
him? We cannot, my dear, unless taught of God, 
form any notion of the glory and happiness of 
heaven ; as it is written, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love him.' i Cor. ii. 9. 

Mary. Oh ! godmother, what a pretty verse ! 
Tell me another about heaven. 

Mrs. Browne. " And one of the elders answered, 
saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed 



68 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

in white robes? and whence came they? And I 
said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to 
me, These are they which came out of great tribula- 
tion, and have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they 
before the throne of God, and sei"ve him day and 
night in his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne 
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more : neither shall the sun 
light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which 
is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and 
shall lead them unto living fountains of water ; and 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
Rev. vii. 13-17. 

Now as they walked along, Mrs. Browne taught 
Mary these verses, and there was scarce time enough 
to set the tea-things before the sergeant came in from 
parade. So they drank tea ; and, after they had 
prayed, and read a chapter or two, they all went to 
bed. 



vsvv^i^ii^iasj!^ 


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B^^^^^^^^^ 


lianwiMjwfflhlMKwi jnMBflftift/'t^ ih TlPyfT iiifflmWi 





STORY IX 




The Fit's t Commandjnent — " Thou shalt have no other 
gods but me.'''' 

HE day after Mary and Mrs. Browne had 
been walking in the garden, Mrs. Browne, 
wanting some tea and sugar, took Mary 
with her to the great bazar^ to buy some. It hap- 
pened that day that there was no evening parade, 
and the men, being at liberty, were running here 
and there up and down the country, and some of 
them were going the same way with Mrs. Browne 
and Mary ; but they did not join company with 
them, for Mrs. Browne was not one for much con- 
verse with strangers, though she was civil to all who 
came in her way. 

Now, as they were going along, Mrs. Browne 
said to Mary, " Of what is it said, in the Bible, that 
Christians should talk, as they walk by the way, 
Mary.?" 

Mary. Of God's word, I think, godmother, and 
his works. 

Mrs. J5row7ze. Yes, my dear, you have answered 
rightly. The command given in the Bible is, that 
we should speak of the words of God at all times : 

69 



70 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your 
heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign 
upon your hand, that they ma}^ be as frontlets be- 
tween your eyes. And ye shall teach them your 
children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine 
house, and when thou walkest by the way, when 
thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deut. 
xi. i8, 19. And now, Mary, that particular portion 
of God's word which I wish to talk of this evening, 
is the first commandment. Can you say it? 

Mary. Yes, godmother, to be sure. — Thou shalt 
have no other gods but me. 

Mrs. Browne. Do you think you have ever 
broken that commandment, Mary.? 

Mary thought a little — at last she said, " No, I 
think not. I never remember saying my prayers to 
any other god but the one true God." 

Mrs. Browne. My dear, do not be too sure that 
you never broke this commandment ; for I believe 
there is not a man nor woman alive who has not 
broken it. There are many ways of breaking it ; 
but I will speak of one way first. To keep this 
commandment rightly, it is not enough to believe 
tha:t there is but one God, and to worship that one 
God ; but, as I remember I told you once before, 
we must have a right notion of that one God whom 
we worship. Now the Mohammedans, or Mussul- 
mauns, say that there is but one God ; and they say 
their prayers only to one God ; but their god is not 
the God of the Christians; no, nor at all like him. 
If you were to read their book, which is to them as 
our Bible is to us, you would be frightened at the 
account it gives of their god : there is no manner of 



THE CATECHISM. 71 

likeness between their god and the God of the 
Christians. And do you think that these people, 
when they worship the god spoken of in their book, 
keep the first commandment, which says, Thou shalt 
have no other gods but me? Now, did you never, 
like these Mohammedans, say your prayers without 
having right notions about God, or even without 
wishing to have them ? 

Mary. Why, godmother, I can't say I ever 
thought much about God till very lately ; and if I 
did happen to think a little about him, I thought 
wrong about him. One thing I used to think, that 
if I said my prayers, he would, for my own sake, 
forgive me my faults and take me to heaven. I 
thought nothing about the Lord Jesus, though I 
knew there was such a person. 

Mrs. Browne. Then, my dear, you did little 
better than one of these Mohammedans. Your notion 
of God was quite wrong. You hardly knew more 
of the true God, the God of Christians, than the 
poorest and most ignorant Mussulmaun in the 
bazar, 

Mary. And when I prayed to God, without 
knowing or thinking of his pure and holy nature, 
and without going to him in the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, did I break the first commandment? 

Mrs. Browne. To be sure, my dear, you did ; 
because God has told us in the Bible what he is, and 
how he would be served. And if we do not strive 
to obtain the true knowledge of him from his Holy 
Book, and to worship him in the way he has ap- 
pointed, we break his first commandment — we do 
not worship him^ but a god of our own fancying. 



72 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mary. What do the Mohammedans say about 
their god ? 

Mrs. Browne. Like us, they say, that there is 
but one God ; but they believe that he will pardon 
sin without an atonement ; that is, without a sacri- 
ficed Redeemer. Now, we know that the true God 
cannot do this ; because his holy lav\(s cannot be 
broken with impunity ; therefore, sinners must 
perish, had not Christ died, the just for the unjust, 
to save us from sin and its punishment. Now, the 
Mohammedans do not represent their god as a lov^er of 
holiness and purity, like the God of the Christians ; 
but they say that he has prepared a place for those 
that love him, where they may indulge in all manner 
of carnal delights. 

Mary. Please to tell me again, godmother, what 
are the things most necessary for me to believe about 
God. 

Mrs. Browne. The true God, my dear, is he 
that " was in Christ reconciling the world unto him- 
self." 2. Cor. V. 19. He is called in the Bible, the 
Lord Jehovah ; and although he is but one God, yet 
he has taught us that in this one God there are three 
persons. 

Mary. I do not understand how there can be 
three persons, godmother, in only one God. 

Mrs. Browne. Can you tell me, my dear, how 
you are made up of a soul and body, while you are 
nevertheless but one little girl.? 

Mary. No, godmother, I cannot explain this. 

Mrs. Browne. Then, my dear, if you cannot tell 
what you are yourself, is it possible for you to com- 
prehend the nature of the infinite God.'' 



THE CATECHISM. 73 

Mary. No, godmother, to be sure. 

Mrs. Browne. We must believe the holy doctrine 
of the Trinity, as we read it in the Bible ; and, till 
we go into another world, we must be content to un- 
derstand this, as well as many other mysteries, only 
in part. 

Mary. I do believe that there are three persons in 
one God ; and I know how these three holy persons 
are called — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

Mrs. Browne. And you ought to know, my dear, 
that no person must presume to go to God the 
Father, but in the name of God the Son ; and that if 
any man dares to pray to God the Father in any other 
name but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he 
breaks the first commandment. 

Just as Mrs. Browne had spoken these words, she 
heard the steps of some one following her ; and, 
looking back, she saw one Sergeant Burton, of the 
next company to her husband's, walking close behind 
them ; and it seemed that he had been hearkening 
for some time to their conversation. Now this Ser- 
geant Burton, though not a young man, was a man 
who had as little of the fear of God as any man in 
the barracks, never setting his foot within a church 
door, except when under orders so to do. 'So the 
sergeant smiled when Mrs. Browne looked back ; 
and, stepping forward, he said, " Upon my word, 
Mrs. Browne, if our parson had been here, he could 
not have preached a longer sermon to that little lass 
there than you have done. And so you would make 
out, that every man who does not worship God after 
your fashion, is no better than those Mussulmaun 
fellows in the bazar?'' 
1 



74 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

'' I meant no offence to you, Sergeant Burton," 
said Mrs. Browne, civilly. " This little girl is my 
goddaughter, and I am willing to take all opportu- 
nities of instructing her ; for God knows, in this 
country w^iere one hears of so many sudden deaths, 
how long I may be spared to her." 

Sergeant Burton. Well, but, Mrs. Browne, are 
you not teaching the child a very difficult doctrine.'* 
Is everybody who does not serve God after your 
fashion to go to hell ? I say my prayers most nights, 
and I believe there is but one God ; and yet, I sup- 
pose, you would make me out to be a breaker of the 
first commandment, and no better than a Mussel- 
maun, because I go to God in my own name? 

" Why, you are not a Christian, sergeant, by your 
own account," says Mrs. Browne ; " for a Christian 
never goes to God in his own name, but in the name 
of the Lord Jesus Christ; for in John xiv. 6, Christ 
himself hath declared — ' I am the Way, the Truth 
and the Life : no man cometh unto the Father but 
by me.' " 

" Well, to be sure," says the sergeant, " what a 
pity it is that you are not a man, Mrs. Browne ! You 
would make a capital parson." Then, laughing at 
his own wit, he walked on ; and Mrs. Browne said, 
as soon as he was out of hearing, "Mary, my dear, 
let us pray to-night for that poor man. He now un- 
thinkingly despises his Redeemer ; but how will he 
feel, when he shall see him whom he has set at 
naught coming in the clouds of heaven, and all his 
holy angels with him, with power and great glory !" 
Mark xiii. 26. 

Mrs. Browne added, soon afterward, " Poor Ser- 



THE CATECHISM. 75 

geant Burton affords another instance of breaking 
the first commandment. He does not worship the 
true God, the Holy Trinity ; for he believes only, 
you see, in the First person ; he will have nothing 
to do with the Second nor the Third ; so he does 
not worship the true God, but a God of his own 
fancying." 

Then Mrs. Browne informed Mary that there 
were yet many other ways of breaking this com- 
mandment, besides the one she had already pointed 
out. "Whoever," said she, " loves house, land, hus- 
band, wife, son or daughter more than God, makes 
a god of that thing, and worships the creature instead 
of the Creator." 

Mrs. Browne continued, " Many years ago, Mary, 
I had one little boy (I never had but one), and he 
was a very lovely babe. I loved him so much that. 
I thought of nothing but my sweet baby morning, 
noon and night. I loved him so that I forgot the 
God who made him and gave him to me ; yes, I 
made a god of my baby. When he was two years 
old, he fell sick and died ; and then, in my grief, I 
recollected how wicked I had been, in disregarding 
that divine declaration : ' He that loveth father or 
mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he 
that loveth son or daughter more than me is not 
worthy of me.' " Matt. x. 37. 

Mary could not help crying as she heard Mrs. 
Browne speak of her dear baby ; and said, " God- 
mother, is he gone to heaven.^" 

Mrs. Browne. Yes, my dear, I believe that he 
was received into heaven for the sake of his blessed 
Saviour ; for he had been baptized into Christ's death. 



76 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

that he might be a partaker of his resurrection, and 
the Lord Jesus loves httle children, and has said, 
" Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for- 
bid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God." 
Mark x. 14. 

Just as Mrs. Browne had repeated this verse, there 
came a w^oman straight toward them from the bazar 
way. She was so loaded with all kinds of things, 
which she had been buying at the bazar^ that she 
was ready to drop under the weight of them, it being 
a very warm evening. When she came near, " I do 
think," said Mrs. Browne, "that there is Sally Hicks, 
of the grenadiers ; what can she have loaded herself 
so for, this warm evening? Was there not a coolie 
to be had in the bazai-?'" 

When Sally Hicks drew nearer, Mrs. Browne per- 
ceived that she was ready to faint with heat ; upon 
which Mrs. Browne called to her, saying, "Mrs. 
Hicks, you will destroy yourself. Do let me run 
and call a coolie to help you." 

Mrs. Hicks set down her basket upon a heap of 
clay in the road, and stood fanning herself with her 
bonnet, till Mrs. Browne came up, and again re- 
quested her, " Do, Mrs. Hicks, let me run for a 
coolie to assist you." 

" Oh, dear !" says Mrs. Hicks, " do you think I am 
like your fine folks, that cannot carry a bit of a 
basket.?" 

Mrs. Browne. Oh ! as to that, I see no shame in 
carrying anything ; but the weather is hot, and you 
will fatigue yourself to death. Next thing I shall 
hear will be that you are gone to the hospital with 
the fever. 



THE CATECHISM. 77 

Sally Hicks. If it were ten times hotter, I could 
not find in my heart to give a fice to a fellow for 
just carrying a basket. Why, I shall be ruined 
without that ! Do you know, all I could do and say, 
I could not get as much sugar, by two cktittack., for 
eight annas., as I did last twenty-fourth? And then 
the butter ! only two balls for three pice ! and so 
small ! I'll have no more butter ! I'll use cherbi for 
the next curry I make. Butter is enough to ruin a 
body. 

Mrs. Browne. Come, come, you should not fret. 
Think how much better we are off in this country 
than in England. 

Mrs. Hicks. Better ! better, I don't see that. I 
am sure I strive and strive, and yet, last month, I 
could only lay by eight rupees and four puckers. 
And there's my husband, he won't sell his drams ; 
and he will have a white loaf every Sunday for his 
breakfast. 

Mrs. Browne. Well, if he only eats his own, he 
does very w^ell. 

Mrs. Hicks. Very well, Mrs. Browne ! Dear ! 
how you talk ! You sergeants have no pity for us 
poor folks. We strive and strive, and pinch and 
pinch, and yet can save next to nothing. And, then, 
there's the rupees that I have at interest, they do not 
bring me in so much by twelve annas a month as I 
thought they would. 

" Oh ! Mrs. Hicks," said Mrs. Browne, " how 
over-anxious you are about money ! Do you expect 
to live in this world for ever, that you are so anxious 
to lay up for the morrow? Do you not know what 
directions our Lord has given us on this subject in 



78 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

his sermon on the Mount? — ' Lay not up for your- 
selves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust 
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and 
steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where 
thieves do not break through nor steal ; for where 
your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' " 
Matt. vi. 19-21. 

Mrs. Hicks stared at Mrs. Browne, and did not 
seem to understand one word of what she said, but, 
taking up her basket, off she trudged. 

When she was out of hearing, " Mary, my dear," 
said Mrs. Browne, " of what is poor Mrs. Hicks in 
danger of making a god .f*" 

Mary answered, " I think she makes a god of her 
rupees*^ 

Mrs. Browne. What commandment do we break 
by loving our rupees too much } 

Mary. The first ; for it is worshipping another 
god besides the Lord Jehovah. 

Mrs. Browne. True, my dear, and I can teach 
you a verse to the very purpose : " Mortify therefore 
your members which are upon the earth ; fornica- 
tion, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupis- 
cence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Col. 
iii. 5. 

By this time, Mary and Mrs. Browne were come 
into the entrance of the bazar^ and they saw, under 
an old tree, several frightful images, with monstrous 
faces and many hands, such as the Hindoos worship. 

Then said Mrs. Browne, " What commandments 
do the Hindoos break, when they worship those 
vile images?" 



THE CATECHISM. 79 

Mary, They break the first, and I think the 
second too. 

Mrs. Browne. Yes, my dear, and the third also : 
for, in the first place, they give to another the wor- 
ship due only to the Lord Jehovah ; secondly, they 
make a vile image, as the object of worship ; and 
thirdly, they take the holy name of God in vain, by 
giving it to their vile images, which are no other 
than representations of devils, i Cor. x. 20. 

Mrs. Browne was now come to the shop where 
the tea and sugar were to be had : so she bought 
what she wanted, and made haste home, for it was 
late. 







STORY X. 

T/ie Second Com?nand7?ie7it — " Thou shalt not 7nake to 
thyself any graveti image, nor the likejiess of atiy- 
thing that is i7i heaveti above, or ifi the ea^-th beneath, 
or in the water U7ider the earth. Thou shalt 7iot 
boiv do'W7i to the7}i, 7ior ivorship the77ij for I the 
Lord thy God a7/i a jealous God, a7id visit the sins 
of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and 
fourth ge7ieration of the7n that hate 77ie, and show 
mercy u7ito thousa7ids of the7n that love me, a7id 
keep my C077i77ia7id7?ie7its P 




HILE the sergeant, and Mrs. Browne, and 
Mary were sitting at breakfast the next 
morning, who should come up to the door 
of their room but Black John, as the soldiers used to 
call him, with a basket of eggs and some fine fresh 
radishes. " Oh !" cried little Mary, " if you want 
any real good eggs, godmother, here is Black John." 
Now this Black John was an old native, who used 
to come about with eggs, and fowls, and garden- 
stuff, to sell ; and there was this thing remarkable in 
him, that he always spoke the truth. If he said his 
eggs were fresh, fresh the}^ were sure to be ; and so 
80 



THE CATECHISM. 8 1 

his fowl and his garden-stuff were exactly such as 
he described them ; he never put off anything bad 
for what should be good, and was content with a 
moderate price : only he did not like ill words ; and 
those who gave him such never saw him again at 
their berths. Black John was a Christian, though 
he dressed altogether like a native, excepting that, 
in the cold season, he was very fond of an old Eng- 
lish cloth coat, and beaver hat or cap ; and nothing 
pleased him better than the present of a cast-off 
scarlet jacket from any of the men. Having mixed 
much among the white people for many years, Black 
John could speak English surprisingly well, and he 
could read it also. 

Black John's chief favourite in the barracks at 
that time was Sergeant Browne : for the sergeant, 
understanding he could read, had given him several 
books, and one in particular, which he prized very 
highly; it was a Common Prayer-Book, in a large 
handsome print, which the sergeant lighted upon 
very cheap at a sale. It was a thing which Black 
John had long desired, but he never could muster 
the money to buy it ; for prayer-books are very dear 
in the Europe shops. 

" Why, John," says the sergeant, while Mrs. 
Browne was looking out the pice for the eggs and 
radishes, " you have not been our way this long 
time." 

" Sakeb" answered Black John, " I have had 
nothing lately to sell. But I shall have plenty, soon, 
of all kinds of things from the garden, and young 
chickens too, and pigeons, if you want any. But, 
sakeb^ you promised me, some time ago, that you 

F . 



82 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

would come to see me at my house, and yet you 
never come." 

Sergeant Bro'W7te. I don't know where you live, 
John. 

Black John. Do you know those trees beyond 
the hospital, by the river's side ? 

Sergeant Browne. Ay, surely. 

Black yohn. Just at the farther end of those 
trees is my house and garden. 

So the sergeant promised to come and see him the 
next evening in which there was no parade or other 
duty ; and Black John went away with his basket. 

Toward the end of that week, it fell out one even- 
ing that there was no parade, and the sergeant was 
quite at liberty for two or three hours. So he be- 
thought himself of Black John ; and he, and his 
wife and Mary, set out to visit him. 

It was as pleasant an evening as could be for this 
country. The sun was under clouds, and the wind 
blew fresh ; and, many of the trees being in blossom, 
the air was perfumed with sweet smells. 

They soon found Black John's house. It was, as 
he said, by the river's side, beyond the hospital, hard 
by an old clump or grove of trees ; and his house 
and garden might be known from a thousand others 
by their extraordinary neatness. His garden was 
full of trees, and was well fenced round with a ditch 
and mindy hedge. His house, indeed, which was 
built of clay, was but small, having only two rooms 
within ; but in the front there was a pretty bamboo 
porch, which had a very pleasant appearance. The 
old man himself was busy in his garden with his 
son, a lad about twelve years old ; and his wife, who 



THE CATECHISM. 83 

was a native woman, was feeding the fowls and 
pigeons at the house-door, when the sergeant and 
Mrs. Browne came up. 

At sight of the sergeant, John's wife ran in and 
hid herself, as the fashion of this country is for 
women to keep very private ; but Black John came 
forward, and brought his visitors into the porch, 
where he was, however, hard put to it to provide 
them with seats ; for he had not such a thing as a 
chair in his house. Nevertheless, he found a mora 
for Mrs. Browne ; and the sergeant and Mary made 
shift to sit on a little mat. So they soon fell into 
discourse ; and the sergeant, after a while, put the 
question to Black John, How he came to be a Chris- 
tian "^ and whether he was born of Christian parents.'' 
And so, from one thing to another, they went on till 
Black John told the sergeant his whole history. 

BLACK JOHN'S STORY. 

"I was borne at the Upper Buxar," said John, 
*'of the Brahmun caste; but I remember neither 
father nor mother. They died when I was quite an 
infant. And I believe I should have died too, of 
downright want, had not an old Brahmun, or holy 
man, who lived in a grove, under a large fig tree, 
where was an idol of Vishnou^ taken pity on me, 
and given me my khauna ; for I neither wanted 
house nor clothes." 

" Brahmun !" said Mrs. Browne ; " though I have 
often heard of Brahmuns, I cannot say that I rightly 
know what Brahmuns are." 

Sergeant Browne. Why, wife, as I take it, the 



84 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Brahmuns are the caste of folks in this country from 
which the priests are chosen. 

Airs. B7'o~j:?ie. Somewhat, I suppose, like the 
Levites among the Jews ; from among whom also 
their priests were chosen. 

'• True," said the sergeant. 

Black John went on with his stor}^ : " The first 
thing that I can remember, was being in this grove, 
sitting under this holy tree, as I was taught to think 
it. At the foot of this tree was a little stone figure 
of Vishnozi (that is, one of this country gods), as 
frightful a figure as you can imagine, not above a 
foot hio^h. with a face as big: as all the rest of his 
body together. But this ugly image I was taught to 
reverence as a most powerful god ; and the old man 
used to tell me long stories of wonderful things that 
were done by this piece of stone. The countr}'- 
people, too, used to come sometimes from a very great 
distance to worship this vile image, and to bring 
presents of rice and sweetmeats to it. The old man 
would entertain these people, as he did me, with 
long stories of miracles done by the image, and of 
what it occasionally said to him, and they believed 
it all. But, for my part, I never saw it stir from its 
place, nor so much as open its ugly mouth : and, 
though I was such a child, I began to suspect my old 
man of being a great liar. 

" The poor old man, however, behaved kindly to 
me. We lived on the rice and presents that were 
brought to our idol ; and I used sometimes to be even 
entertained with the wild and ridiculous tales which 
he told. I might be about ten years of age, or some- 
what more, when, on getting up one morning in the 



THE CATECHISM. ^^ 

midst of the cold season, I found my old man dead ; 
an event which had most probably been caused by 
the excessive keenness of the night air. At first, I 
could not believe that he was dead. I turned his 
head about and about, and called to him, and shook 
him ; but when I found he was really dead, I set up 
such a loud howling that the woods rang again. 
No answer however was made to my cries, excei^ting 
by the pigeons and brahminee kites. 

" Toward midday, the corpse of the poor old man 
began to change, and to look so frightful, that I could 
bear to stay with it no longer. So I left the body for 
the jackals and crows to devour ; and, taking the 
old man's brass lota., which was all the riches he had, 
I set off from the wood, and went toward the river, 
which was not, at high water, above half a coss 
from the wood. 

" When I came down to the river, I saw a boat 
fastened to the shore ; near w^hich a company of 
Brahmuns was gathered together on the river bank, 
who were going from the Hurdwaur, or source of 
the Ganges, to Calcutta ; some of whom were cook- 
ing their victuals, some smoking their hookas^ and 
others fast asleep. I went up to them, and told them 
my history ; informing them that I was the son of a 
Brahmun, and begging their charity. But they went 
on with what they were about, and paid little heed 
to me ; only one threw me a handful of dr}' rice, 
which I was glad enough of, I can assure you. 
While I was gathering up the rice, I heard a rustling 
in some long grass near me ; whence I soon perceived 
a serpent, which had been disturbed by some of the 
company, gliding out of the grass toward an old 



S6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Brahmun, who was sleeping hard by. I snatched up 
a stick, and running up to the old man, killed the 
serpent, just at the moment it was darting at him. 
When this old Brahmun had learned my history, and 
was told what I had done for him, and that but for 
me he had now been a dead man, he told me 1 
should go with him to Calcutta, and that he would 
provide for me ; and he was as good as his word. I 
went on board the boat with him that night, and he 
took me to Calcutta. 

" The old man was a priest of one the idol temples, 
or great pagodas, near Calcutta. He had been visited 
by a dream, in which he fancied that his idol had 
ordered him to go on a pilgrimage to Hurdwaur 
(which is reckoned a very holy place among the 
Hindoos), from which place he was returning when 
I lighted upon him in the way I have told you. He 
was as full of superstitious tales and lies as my old 
man who died in the woods ; but he was, withal, 
more greedy of gain, intolerably proud, abounding 
in all manner of wickedness, and filled with the most 
filthy and abominable conceits ; so that a more vile 
old man could scarcely be; yet he behaved well 
enough to me, seeing I had saved his life. 

" When I came to the great pagoda, of which my 
master was one of the chief priests, my eyes were 
at first dazzled with all its gaudy ornaments ; and I 
admired the monstrous idols painted on the v/alls in 
gold and scarlet colour. I was perhaps a little more 
than ten years old when I first arrived at Calcutta, 
where I served in some of the humblest offices about 
this pagoda, it might be for four years. And, were 
I to tell you all the wickedness which I saw practiced 




" I soon perceived a serpent, which had been disturbed by some of the com- 
pany, gliding ont of the grass towards an old Brahmin who was sleeping hard 
by. I snatched up a stick, and running up to the old man, killed the serpent 
just at the moment it was darting at him." — Page 86, 



THE CATECHISM. S7 

before these idols, more especially on the days of 
the great feasts, when the temples were lighted up, 
and the horns and drums were sounded, it would 
make you tremble, and say, that the devil was there 
indeed, and that hell was opened upon earth. But 
such things should not be once named among 
Christians. 

" Now, as I said, I had been about four years in 
the service of my master, the Brahmun, performing 
some of the meanest services about the great pagoda, 
when, one day, a very rich native came from Calcutta, 
to be cured of a severe sickness with which he had 
been troubled many years ; for my master pretended 
to cure all kinds of sickness. I was standing by my 
master, while he sat discoursing with this native, 
and I heard him tell the sick man, that he could do 
nothing for him, till he had presented the god with 
a silver ornament of such a certain weight and 
shape. Accordingly, the sick man went back to his 
house ; whence, a few days after, at the feast of the 
Hooley^ he returned again, bringing with him the 
required present, which was a heavy chain of wrought 
silver, which was immediately hung round the neck 
of the idol. From the time that I saw the chain, 
Satan filled my mind with covetous desires ; so that 
I could think of nothing, night or day, but of steal- 
ing it. But how was this to be done.? I could not 
do it by day, without being seen ; and my master 
slept every night in the temple, at the foot of the 
idol. 

" However, my covetousness could not let me rest, 
and I determined, cost what it would, to make the 
chain my own. So, one night, when there was no 



88 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

light from the moon or stars, I resolved to make the 
trial. My usual sleeping-place was upon a little mat, 
under a shed, in one corner of the court of the 
pagoda. When all was quiet, I crept from my 
corner, having thrown aside all my copra but my 
cu7nvierbund^ and made my way to the inner door 
of the pagoda. There was a lamp burning before 
the great idol, and my master was, as I thought, 
asleep at the foot of it. I crept round the wall as 
softly as I could, and, first blowing out the light, I 
twitched the chain from the neck of the idol, and 
was making ofT, as I thought safe enough, when I 
felt some one seize me by the throat. It was my 
master. We struggled for some moments ; but, he 
being very old, I proved the stronger ; and taking 
him by his long hair, I dashed him upon the ground. 
I fear that I killed him (a thought that has been 
most painful to me ever since), for I heard him 
groan as I fled from the pagoda, not daring to stay 
there any longer. I now made my way with all 
speed through the gates of the court, and ran I knew 
not which way, imagining that I was pursued all the 
night. 

" At break of day I found myself far enough from 
Calcutta, in a wild marshy country, without clothes, 
without home, without friends, and nothing to com- 
fort me but my chain ; and all the while I seemed to 
hear my old master's frightful groans. Most thank- 
fully would I then have given all I had to recall the 
circumstances of the preceding day ; but what was 
passed could not be called back. 

" I hid my chain in my cu7?i7nerbund^ and ran on 



THE CATECHISM. 89 

all day, as if pursued ; getting more and more among 
the marshes of the Sunderbunds." 

" The Sunderbunds !" said Mrs. Browne ; " what 
are those?" 

Sergeant B7'o%V7te. Why, my dear, yon river, 
which is the Ganges, empties itself into the sea, down 
below, by, at least, a hundred mouths. And the 
country round about those mouths of the Ganges is 
all swamp and salt-water marshes — a dismal wild 
country, full of tigers and other fierce creatures, as 
I have heard some of our men say who came through 
it ; so that, except here and there, no human creature 
can live in it. 

Black yohn. " There are, however, some few 
villages, thereabouts, though they are poor places. 
But I was, at that time, so conscience-struck that, 
for many days, I kept wandering about the woods 
and marshes, not daring to face a fellow-creature, till 
I was nearly famished. And what completed my 
misery was, that, when I came to examine my chain 
I found it was not silver, but some base metal washed 
over with silver ; for my old master, it seemed, had 
been beforehand with me, taking the silver one to 
himself, and getting this made to put in its stead. 
So I cast it away in my grief. 

" Well, not to make my story too long, while I 
wandered among the woods I had many thoughts, 
such as had never come into my mind before ; more 
especially relating to my own wickedness, and the 
wickedness of all the world. I began also to suspect 
that those great blocks of wood and stone, which I 
had been accustomed to serve, could not be real gods ; 
otherwise they would not stand quietly, and suffer 
8* 



90 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

us to put the tricks upon them which we did. At 
last, being ready to perish with hunger, I was com- 
pelled, at all ventures, to leave the lonely woods 
and marshes, and to seek some habitation of man. 
And it chanced, that in the first village I lighted 
upon there were several families of w^hite people, as 
well as many natives ; it was a pretty village enough, 
but lay very retired. 

" When I came into the village, I looked about for 
some of whom 1 might ask relief. At length I came 
to a little bung-alow^ standing in a garden ; where a 
white padj'e^ it being then the cool of evening, was 
gathering vegetables in the garden." 

^'' A padre r says the sergeant; "what, a parson 
do you mean ? Are there any of our parsons there- 
abouts ?" 

Black yohn. " No, not of your sort ; this was a 
Roman Catholic padre, from Europe as well as your 
padre, and a white man. There are many of the 
Roman padres down about Calcutta, and in many 
other parts of the country." 

Airs. JSrowne. Ay, surely. I saw one the other 
day here. He had a long black gown on down to 
his heels ; and a cord, or rope round his waist ; with 
a small black silk cap on his head. 

Black yohn. " Well, I made up to this white 
padre, for I knew what he was well enough ; and 
telling him a long story, very little of which was 
true, I begged a few cowries for heaven's sake. 

" After having asked me several questions, he told 
me, that, if I was willing to give up my caste, and 
the customs of my father's house, he would relieve 
my wants. I had now nothing to lose ; and know- 



THE CATECHISM. 91 

ing that I must never again show my face among the 
Brahmuns, I told him that I was ready to perish 
with hunger ; that I was his slave, and would do 
anything to serve him. 

" ' But,' said he, ' are you willing to give up the 
gods of your fathers, and to follow the religion which 
I will teach you ? You say you are a Hindoo. — Will 
you forsake the worship of the Hindoo gods, which 
are no better than devils, and be taught of me?' 

" I was too hungry to stand arguing with him. I 
agreed therefore to do whatever he pleased ; where- 
upon he ordered one of his servants immediately to 
bring me a dish of boiled rice and salt. 

" The next day he set me to work in his garden 
for some hours, and afterward gave me some instruc- 
tion in his religion. He had many followers in the 
village ; to whom he preached, at least, once every 
day, besides catechising the younger sort. I soon 
found out that the way to please my master was, to 
counterfeit a conviction that his religion was the only 
true one, and to take so much heed to his instructions 
as might enable me to repeat the answers in his cat- 
echism with tolerable exactness. I wanted neither 
cunning nor a good memory ; and so speedily be- 
coming a mighty favourite with him, he removed me 
from his garden to his house ; he baptized me, giving 
me the name of John; clothed me well; took me 
wherever he went ; and even would set me to teach 
the children of such as were his followers. 

"Moreover, he taught me to read and write, and 
to speak the English tongue ; for he was from Ire- 
land, where, as I understand, they speak the same 
tongue as they do in your country." 



92 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" To be sure they do," says the sergeant ; " we are 
all under one king, and are as one people ; only there 
is a little bit of a sea between us. But there are a 
number of those Romans in Ireland." 

Black yohn. "Well, now I was a Christian in 
name, and in outside show, as much as the best of 
you. But that was all ; for, while I lived with my 
padre^ I had no more notion of the real Christian 
religion than yonder crow, and was but a very little 
farther from idolatry than I had been before ; finding 
no manner of change in my heart, nor indeed per- 
ceiving the need of it." 

Se7'geant Browne. Well, I should like to know 
what the pad7'e taught you. I never rightly under- 
stood what those Romans are. They talk of Christ 
and of the Virgin Mary, and call themselves Chris- 
tians ; but old Sergeant Cooper used to say, that the 
Roman religion w^as no more like the true Christian 
religion than a rotten egg is like a fresh one. 

Black yohn. " Why, in the first place, though 
my master taught me to read, yet he never put a 
Bible in my hand. They don't hold it good for the 
people to read the Bible." 

Sergeajit Browne. Then, I take it, that's the bot- 
tom of all their wrong-doing. Why, if I miss my 
Bible but one or two days, I find myself, as it were, 
going back. 

Black yohn. "My padre was as full of wild 
tales about his saints as ever my old man in the 
woods could be about his gods. I have turned the 
Bible over and over to find one of the many stories 
which he used to tell me about the Assumption of 
St. Mary, and about St. Francis, and St. Bridget, 



THE CATECHISM. 93 

and fifty more — but I never could meet with anything 
of the sort in that holy Book." 

Sergeant Browne. Then you may be sure that 
an acquaintance with these tales is not necessary to 
salvation, because we know that the Bible contains 
all things necessary to salvation, as the prophet 
Isaiah speaks: "To the law and to the testimony; 
if they speak not according to this word, it is because 
there is no light in them." Isaiah viii. 20. 

Black yohn. " Now these saints were no more 
(as I ever could make out) than men and women 
like ourselves, and born as we are, in sin ; yet my 
master held that, after baptism, these men not only 
ceased to sin, but were enabled to do as many good 
works as were sufficient to save their own souls, be- 
sides some to spare for their neighbours in need." 

Sergeant Browne. Why, that was destroying, 
altogether, the doctrine of Christ's being the only 
way to heaven. Where was the need of Christ's 
dying for us upon the cross, if men and women have 
power to save themselves and others by their good 
works } 

Black yohn. " My master taught me to pray to 
these saints, and gave me many little images of 
them, for the very purpose of saying my prayers to 
them. He gave me, also, the figure of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, cut in stone, and hanging upon the 
cross, and an Agnus Dei., or Lamb of God ; and to 
these two I was to make my prayers. So, as I said 
before, I was no further from idolatry with the 
padre than when I was living under the great fig- 
tree, or in the pagoda. But after I was baptized, 
my master having taught me that all my past sins 



94 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

were washed awa}^, and that I might now, by my 
own good works, like other saints and holy men, 
make sure of heaven, I became wonderfully proud 
and self-conceited. And though my heart was never 
a whit changed, and sin reigned therein I think 
more than ever (for I felt inclined to commit every 
kind of crime which might fall in my way), yet I 
counted myself not far behind the chiefest of their 
saints, because I habitually repeated long prayers, so 
many scores in a morning, so many scores at noon, 
and so many at night ; and because, just to please 
my master, I catechised the children, and attended 
mass, which is the name the Romans give to the 
Lord's Supper. 

" But," said Black John, " the evening closes in 
fast, so I must hasten to the end of my story. I 
lived with my master, the -padre ^ till I was twenty- 
one or twenty-two years of age ; at which time he 
removed to Calcutta, whither I also ventured to ac- 
company him, being then so totally changed, both 
in person and apparel, as to apprehend no danger 
of detection from the Brahmuns. 

" At Calcutta my master hired two or thee rooms 
in a house belonging to an elderly English gentle- 
man, who seemed to be not much richer than my 
master ; but he was a quiet man, and a good neigh- 
bour, and, out of the little he possessed, was ready 
to give to all who wanted. He had a way of keep- 
ing a little bag of pice in his writing-box, so that 
when any poor man came to the door, he had some- 
thing always ready to gi\'e him. My money at that 
time running short, I began to think that I might as 
well help myself out of the old gentleman's bag. 



THE CATECHISM. 95 

Accordingly, I went, at different times, when I 
thouglit I had him safe out of the way, and took out 
one, two, or three fice^ according to the number in 
the bag. A drop of holy water, and a score or two 
of prayers to one of the saints, I imagined would 
wash away these little sins. One day, however, it 
happened, when I thought that I had my old gentle- 
man safe, that I went to the box as usual, and was 
going to help myself; when he came into the room, 
and caught me with my hand in the bag. I now 
thought myself a lost man ; and, falling at his feet, 
I humbly besought his mercy. To my utter aston- 
ishment, he raised me up kindly, and said, 'My 
young man, I forgive you : so may God forgive me.' 
And then he spoke to me in such a feeling way 
concerning the wickedness of stealing, and of God's 
hatred to sin, that I was cut to the heart. But I 
was still more touched when he took his little bag 
oi pice and gave it to me, sa3nng, 'My young man, 
I know that your master is not rich ; and you may, 
sometimes, be at a loss for a little money; if so, I 
would rather that you should tell me, and, so far as 
I am able, I will help you. You bear the Christian 
name ; and I should be sony that one bearing that 
name should be lost for a few annas.^ 

" I thanked him for his kindness with tears ; for I 
had never met with such goodness as this before. 
And I remember that I made him a number of 
promises that I never would again be guilty of 
thieving. 

'"M}' young man,' said he, 'you speak very 
fair ; but you seem not to know, that, from the 
wickedness of your heart, you are not able of your- 



96 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

self to keep these promises. You cannot do well 
without help from heaven : it is not in your power.' 

"'I will pray then,' said I, 'to all the saints for 
their help.' ' Those saints,' said the old gentleman, 
' are only men and women, like yourself. They can 
do nothing for you. You must ask God for assist- 
ance, and not apply to creatures who are as weak 
and sinful as yourself.' 

••' I then took from my bosom an Agnus Dei 
(which, as I said before, is the figure of a little 
lamb, signifying the Lamb of God, or Jesus Christ), 
and said, ' I will pray to this ; this is the image of 
God himself, and he will help me.' 

" The old gentleman said, ' My son, know you 
not the commandments of God ? — that there are ten 
chief or primary commandments, the second of 
which is, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven 
image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven 
above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under 
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor 
worship them ; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren, unto the third and fourth generation of them 
that hate me, and show mercy unto thousands in 
them that love me, and keep my commandments. 

" ' You see,' continued the old gentleman, ' and 
you despise the gross idolatry of the Hindoos, and 
think their religion hateful ; but wherein are you 
better than they.^ You worship, like them, stocks 
and stones, men and women ; you make images of 
God (of which you are forbidden to make any like- 
ness), and fall down and worship them. You are 
as much an idolater as the poor natives in their 



THE CATECHISM. 97 

pagodas ; and while you continue to follow this vile 
worship of images, your heart will remain polluted 
with sin, and the land will groan, as this now does, 
with murder and robbery, and uncleanness of every 
kind ; for there is no blessing promised to idolaters 
or to their children ; but God will show mercy unto 
thousands in them that love him and keep his 
commandments.' 

" The old gentleman concluded by giving me a 
Bible, and earnestly begging me to read it. After 
all his kindness, I could not refuse what he asked : 
I read it indeed, but always in private ; since I did 
not dare to let my master see that I had such a 
thin^. I shortly began to take a great interest in 
my Bible, and used often to go to the gentleman to 
ask the meaning of such parts as I did not under- 
stand. 

" When we had been at Calcutta about a twelve- 
month, my master was taken ill and died ; after 
which the old gentleman engaged me in his service, 
and, as he was in trade, I became very useful to him, 
and lived with him many years. It was he who 
brought me up the country. I remained with him, 
in all, twenty years ; for he was very old indeed 
when he died. And in his service, though not till 
after some years had passed away, I got that which 
was better than all the rupees I could save — a 
true and right knowledge of the Christian religion 
gathered from the Bible itself. He persuaded me 
to renounce all my Roman doctrines ; to trust no 
longer in my own good works or deservings, the 
best of which, he assured me, were but as filthy 
rags ; and to take fast hold by faith of the Lord 
9 G 



98 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

Jesus Christ, in whom alone we can hope for salva 
tion : ' for all the gods of the people, said he, are 
idols ; but the Lord made the heavens.' i Chron. 
xvi. 26. By the knowledge of these truths, I was 
led not only to lament and abhor the wickedness of 
my past life ; but to discover also the vileness of 
my heart as the secret cause of all that wickedness. 
Moreover, I learned where to go (even to the cross 
of the Lord Jesus Christ) for the pardon of my sins, 
and for grace to teach me, a poor miserable sinner, 
how to live, in some degree, to his glory. 

" And God has blessed me," said Black John, 
" most wonderfully since I renounced all my idols. 
I have this pleasant house and garden, and store of 
good things of this world ; a wife who fears God ; 
and a son, who is exceedingly dutiful — to whom God, 
I trust, will show mercy, in withholding him from 
turning back to the idolatries of his forefathers." 

"You must pray for him," said the sergeant, 
" and put the Bible into his hands." 

"That I do daily," answered Black John. 

"Well," said the sergeant, getting up and giving 
Black John his hand, "it has done me good to hear 
this story. Would God that there were more of 
your sort, John ! No matter what the colour of the 
skin is, if the heart be but cleansed. I hope, John, 
that you and I may meet in a better world !" 

" God grant it !" said Black John. 

So the sergeant and his family took leave ; and 
the sergeant was obliged to step forward pretty 
briskly, to be in barracks by roll-call. 



STORY XI. 




The Third co7ninandment — " Thou shalt not take the na7ne 
of the Lord thy God m vainj for the Lord will not 
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain?'' 

T was on Saturday evening that the sergeant 
went to see Black John ; and, on the Sun- 
day following, there was no service in the 
church, by reason of the illness of the clergyman. 
Now it happened, as the sergeant was reading to his 
family, that three or four men, who sat talking to- 
gether upon a guard-cot, just out at the door in the 
verandah^ began to take the name of God in vain, 
after the fashion of too many in this country, and, 
indeed, of the irreligious in all countries. They 
were not speaking in any heat or anger neither ; for 
they were telling each other tales of what had 
happened to them in other places, and all, as I say, 
in good humour. 

The sergeant was at that time reading John Bun- 
yan's Pilgri?n's Progress^ "For," said he to his 
wife, "Mary will understand it perhaps better than 
a sermon book." But when the men began with 
their oaths, the sergeant became restless, and shifted 
from place to place. At last, down went the book ; 



lOO STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"Wife," said he, "if ever poor pilgrims were in 
Vanity Fair, this is surely our case. Of all the in- 
conveniences of barracks, in my mind, this is the 
worst — the being forced to hear so much profane dis- 
course." So saying he went out into the verandah^ 
and thus accosted the men ; " My lads, I wish I 
could persuade you to let -that holy name alone." 

" What name.?" asked the men. 

"What name.?" said the sergeant; "why, God's 
name, to be sure. You have it at every word. It's 
a bad custom, my lads — a very bad custom." 

" Oh !" said one of the young men, whose name 
was Dick Rowe, " we mean no harm by it, Sergeant 
Browne. It's just a way of speaking we have. We 
mean no offence to God ; nor to 3^ou neither." 

Sei'geant Browne. But don't you know, Rowe, 
that there is a direct, downright command against 
taking that name in our mouths every minute? 
Didst thou never learn thy Catechism, my lad. 

Dick Rowe. Oh ! the Church Catechism ? — To 
be sure, I have. What did I go to school for? 

Sergeant Browne. Well, and what's the third 
commandment. 

Dick Rowe. The third commandment.? — No; I 
can't say as I rightly know it. It's a good while 
since I left school. 

Sergea7it Browne. It is this : " Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the 
Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name 
in vain." 

Dick Rowe. So it is, sergeant ; so it is. I re- 
member it now. 

Sergeant Browne. You see, Dick, by this com- 



THE CATECHISM. lOI 

mandment, that we are not to take God's holy name 
in our mouths every minute. " Hol}^ and reverend is 
his name," says King David. Psahn cxi. 9. 

Dick Rowe. But, Sergeant Browne, God is not 
so particular as all that comes to ; he does not notice 
every word that a man may use in conversation with 
his fellows. I should be sorry to offend you, ser- 
geant, because you have stood my friend many a 
time ; and so, when I think of it, I won't say the 
word again in your hearing. But I cannot imagine 
that it is such a sin, just to repeat God's name in our 
common talk, as you would have it. 

Sergeant Bi'owne. Why, as to its being a sin, 
and a very grevious one, there can be no doubt of 
that, Dick. Think how great God is, and how^ very 
holy his name is ; and think again, that he has given 
us particular orders not to repeat his name in a light 
way. Why, if there is an order given out from the 
colonel, though it be about ever so little a matter, 
a good soldier thinks it his duty to observe it : — how 
much more, then, is it our duty to obey God's com- 
mands ! and he has, as I have shown you, forbidden 
us, in the plainest words, to use his name lightly ; 
and, more than that, he has forbidden us to use any 
kind of oaths. What does our Lord say on this sub- 
ject? " I say unto you. Swear not at all : neither by 
heaven ; for it is God's throne : nor by the earth ; 
for it is his footstool : neither by Jesusalem ; for it is 
the city of the Great King. Neither shalt thou 
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one 
hair white or black : but let your communication be, 
Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatsoever is more than 
these, cometh of evil." Matt. v. 34-37. And again, 



I03 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither 
by heaven, neither by the earth, neither b}^ any other 
oath : but let your yea be yea ; and your nay, nay ; 
lest ye fall into condemnation." James v. 12. 

Dick Rowe. But this is a fault, sergeant, into 
which so many fall — God help us, if we are all to 
be damned who are guilty of it. The world is in a 
bad way, if all that the good folks say is true. 

Sergeant B7'owne. Who ever doubted that the 
world is in a bad way? Why did God himself come 
down from heaven, and take man's nature on him, 
and die upon the cross a cruel death, if the world 
was not in a bad way, by reason of sin } But, as to 
this matter of taking God's holy name in vain, I 
could tell you a stor}^, which happened before my 
eyes when I was a youngster, pat to the purpose. 
Many a time I have thought of it since. It is now 
a good many years since I came to this regiment. I 
might be about seventeen or eighteen at that time, 
and I was from the very same town as our colonel ; 
and so, being known to him, and to all his family, I 
was in his favour, and he employed me to take care 
of his horse, and wait at table, and such things. 
Our regiment then lay in Yorkshire. 

Dick Rowe. Not this same colonel we have 
now.? 

Sergeant Browne. No, nor the one before him. 
It was one Colonel Drummond. He had been as 
fine a man in his younger days, I am sure, as you 
could see ; but he was then far in years, and was the 
father of a noble set of children, mostly grown up, 
and brought up in the fear of God ; for both the 
colonel and his lady were God-fearing people. 



THE CATECHISM. 103 

" While I served the colonel," continued the ser- 
geant, " one of his sons, a young gentleman not 
quite fifteen, came from one of the London schools, 
and his father had interest enough to get him an en- 
signcy in this regiment. He was a fine boy ; but, 
like other boys of his age, he was mighty full of 
himself, and much harder to please than his father. 

" It would have made you smile to have seen him 
swagger about when he got his first uniform coat, 
and to hear how he blustered before his sisters, and 
before the men on parade, when the old gentleman 
was not within hearing. His name was Frederick 
Drummond ; I remember the name well, though I 
don't know that ever I heard it either before or since. 
Well, it happened, one day, when I was waiting at 
table, that Master Frederick came out with the name 
of God, as he was speaking to one of his sisters ; 
whereupon his father rebuked him, and that more 
sharply than I ever heard him before upon any oc- 
sion ; for Colonel Drummond never allowed any 
profane word to be used in his presence, nor any 
sacred thing or person to be spoken of lightly. 

" Master Frederick answered, that the young men 
at school were in the habit of using such language 
on all occasions. 

" ' Be that it may,' said his father, ' if you wish 
for my favour, never let me hear a word of the kind 
again ; and do not think, young man, that you are 
either the better gentleman, or the better soldier, be- 
cause you dare to be profane.' " 

Dick Row e. Why, sure. Colonel Drummond 
was one of a thousand. 

" Nay," said the sergeant, " I hope there are many 



I04 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

like him now ; and God grant that there may be 
more hereafter. Well, but to go on with my story, 
I don't know that I ever heard young Mr. Frederick 
come out with a word of the kind again before his 
father ; but on parade, before the colonel came on, 
he would often give the company a spice of what he 
had learned at school; for, like most lads of his age, he 
was a mighty bully where he could be, though he 
afterward became a very fine officer and a worth}^ 
man. 

" Well, it was one king's birth-day, I was standing 
on parade with the colonel's horse ; there was, hard 
by, a little copse or grove of trees, and a hay-stack ; 
and my master, the colonel, was standing just within 
the trees, talking on some business with the major, 
and so placed that, without intending it, for he was 
above being a mean listener, somewhat of what 
passed at our end of the parade could not but reach 
his ears. 

" Well, Mr. Frederick came on parade before any 
of the other officers of his company, and began to 
call about him in a wonderful manner, taking the 
sacred name of God in vain at every other word, not 
once dreaming who was so near ; but his father was, 
at first, so much busied with what he was saying to 
the major, that he did not notice what his son was 
about. 

^' Now, there was, at that time, in the same com- 
pany with Mr. Frederick, a private who had received 
a wound on the head on the Continent. He was, at 
most times, a quiet, good fellow as could be ; but 
one cup of beer more than common, made him quite 
mad, and then, I believe had the king come before 



THE CATECHISM. 105 

him, and affronted him, he would not have spared 
his Majesty. He was found, soon afterward, unfit 
for service, and discharged. The men used to call 
him Crazy Will. It so happened, that this day, being 
the king's birth-day, Will had taken a pint of beer ex- 
traordinary, and had an answer ready for any one ; 
and, unluckily, Mr. Frederick, not knowing his in- 
firmity, rebuked him sharply, as he stood in the 
ranks. — I forget what for. No sooner had he spoken, 
than Will broke out, as none but a madman would 
have done, to be sure ; repeating the name of Mr. 
Frederick with the utmost contempt, and that so 
loud, that the whole regiment could not but hear from 
one end to- the other. Now the officers, by this time, 
being mostly come on parade, Mr. Frederick was 
ready to burst with rage ; when perceiving his father 
stepping forward to mount his horse, he went up to 
him, to ask what he should do with that madman, as 
he rightly called him ; but the young gentleman, in 
his passion, forgetting his father's orders, began to 
use the name of God as freely as Crazy Will had 
done his own. 

" The colonel — I shall never forget him — heark- 
ened to what his son had to say with the greatest 
coolness; but when Mr. Frederick asked him how 
the man, who had thus publicly insulted his au- 
thority was to be punished, without making him an 
immediate answer, he ordered the bugle to sound for 
breaking up parade ; when dismounting, and taking 
his son by the arm, he led him into the copse, bid- 
ding me follow with the horse. 

" When the colonel was out of hearing of the reg- 
iment, he stopped, and taking his son's hand, ' Fred- 



Io6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

erick,' said he, ' I am not willing that you should 
lose the advantage which this occurrence may afford 
you, if rightly received. The Almighty God, who 
is Ruler of all things, the God of gods, the King of 
kings, the Lord of hosts, has signified his will, that 
his name should never be lightly used by his crea- 
tures. Now if a regiment, which consists, at most, 
of not above twelve hundred men, cannot exist if 
insubordination and contempt of orders be permitted 
in it ; how much less can God's kingdom prosper if 
he allows his creatures to break his commands and 
despise his holy name? You have felt to-day what 
it is to have your name disrespectfull}^ used in the 
front of the whole regiment ; and yet, Frederick, 
what has been your constant habit lately? whose 
sacred name have you daily profaned? whose com- 
mands have you openly despised ? You call upon 
me to punish the poor madman who has offended 
you ; but what would be the case, Frederick, if God 
should be extreme to mark what you have done 
amiss ?' 

" I heard every word of this ; I believe the colonel 
meant I should ; and I saw poor Mr. Frederick blush 
and hold down his head, without being able to speak 
for some minutes. 

" ' That poor man who offended 3'OU, Frederick,' 
said the colonel, ' is, at times, mad ; but, f^r the sake 
of example, for the sake of order and military disci- 
pline, he must be punished.' 

" ' No, sir, no,' said Mr. Frederick ; ' let him be 
forgiven, and so may God forgive me.' 

" The colonel answered, ' His punishment shall 
be as slight as military discipline will permit, Fred- 



THE CATECHISM. 1 07 

erick, I promise you. And, oh ! my son ! my son ! 
if you love your father, if you love your mother, let 
this lesson sink deep into your heart ; and as you 
know the importance of respect to superiors in the 
military life, pay due honour to your Almighty God 
and Father, that he may approve and promote you 
in the armies of heaven.' 

" I shall never forget the old gentleman's words 
and manner while I live," said the sergeant. '' From 
that time, I never heard Mr. Frederick use a profane 
word ; and, as I said before, he became a very fine 
officer." 

" Well," said Dick Rowe, " I cannot but say that 
this story is somewhat to the purpose ; and I wish 
that I could take these matters more to heart; for, 
after all, I believe you pious folks have the best of it, 
even in this life ; and nobody can dispute who is on 
the right side when the dying hour comes." 

So Dick Rowe and his companions got up, and 
walked off to the other end of the barrack. 



STORY XII. 

The Fourth Cominandme7it — ^''Remember that thou keep 
holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour^ 
and do all that thou hast to do j but the seventh day 
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt 
do no i7ianner of work j thou, and thy son, and thy 
daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, 
thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. 
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the 
sea, and all that in them is, aiid rested the seventh 
day J whe?'efore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and 
hallowed it. ^ 




^HE next morning, while Mrs. Browne and 
Mary were sitting at work, Mrs. Browne 
said, " Mary, what is the fourth command- 
ment r 

Mary. Oh ! godmother, I know that very well. 
It was that which Sergeant Browne made me repeat 
last Sunday, when I was tied to the foot of the bed. 
It is about keeping Sunday. 

Mrs. Browne. Let me hear you say it, Mary. 
Mary. " Remember that thou keep holy the Sab- 
bath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all 
that thou hast to do ; but the seventh day is the Sab- 
bath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no 
108 



THE CATECHISM. 1 09 

manner of work ; thou, and thy son, and thy daugh- 
ter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy 
cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For 
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; 
wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and 
hallowed it." 

Mrs. Browne. When did God first appoint one 
day in seven to be kept holy.'' 

Mary. At the very beginning of the world. In 
six days God made the world, and on the seventh 
day he rested from his work, and ordered it to be 
kept holy. 

Mrs. Browne. Why, then, do Christians keep 
the first day of the week, and not the seventh } 

Mary thought for a moment, and then answered, 
frankly, " Godmother, I can't tell." 

Mrs. Browne. You remember, my dear, that 
our Saviour himself declared, " The Son of man is 
Lord also of the Sabbath." Matt. xii. 8. He thus 
announced his right to change, or to abrogate it ; 
and when he had fulfilled its great design, by resting 
on that day in the sepulchre, he hallowed another 
and a greater day, by rising from the dead on the 
first-day of the week, "• making all things new." 
Thus, the Jewish Sabbath passed away, and the 
Lord's day was given in its stead, which is still the 
seventh day, counting after the Resurrection. The 
moral, but not the ceremonial part of the fourth 
commandment still applies to it, therefore, and this 
is one of those truly apostolic traditions which the 
Church of Christ has always observed, as St. Paul 
enjoins in 2 Thess. ii. 15. 
10 



no STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mary, Now, godmother, I think I remember, 
Mr. King told us about it, last Easter. 

Mrs. Browne. How, then, do you think that 
Sunday, or the Christian Sabbath, should be kept? 

Mary. We should do no work on Sunday ; we 
should read the Bible and go to church. 

Mrs. Browne. And what else ? 

Mary. We ought to talk of God on Sundays, 
and not to go visiting about, to see people who do 
not love God. 

Mrs. Browne. Very well, my dear. And now, 
to make you understand this better, I will tell you a 
story of something that happened when I was young. 

MRS. BROWNE'S STORY. 

My father and mother died when I was a baby : 
in consequence of which I and my brother, who 
was two years older than I, were brought up by my 
grandmother, a good old woman, who lived in a 
small house in a little town in England. 

My grandmother took great pains to make us fear 
God ; and my brother was as pious a young man as 
any in the whole country, behaving so prettily to his 
grandmother, who became blind at last, that it was 
quite pleasant to see them together. When my 
brother became a man, he followed the trade of a 
carpenter, and earned so much money that he, in 
his turn, maintained his aged grandmother ; so that 
she wanted for nothing in the world. Having 
reached the age of about twenty-two, he said, one 
day, to his grandmother, " Grandmother, I am now 
in a very good way of business, and can earn, thank 



THE CATECHISM. m 

God, plenty of money for all purposes. I have been 
thinking, for some time, that I should like to choose 
me a wife : but, as )^ou have been so kind to me, I 
vs^ould not choose one that might be disagreeable to 
you, upon any account ; because, as we must all 
live in one house, it would be very hard for me to 
bring a woman in here to make you uncomfortable 
in your old age." 

" Grandson," said the old lady, " I cannot but be 
pleased at your dutifulness in consulting me upon 
this matter : but, having been blind some years, and 
seldom going out, I know very few of the young 
women of our town, and so cannot be supposed 
capable of judging who is fit, or who is not, to be- 
come your wife. However, as you ask my opinion, 
my advice is, don't be in haste, but look about you, 
and see what families in the town keep the Lord's 
day well ; and choose a wife from those who keep 
it best ; for the Lord blesses those people who keep 
his day, as it is written in Isaiah Iviii. 13, 14: 'If 
thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from 
doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the 
Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honour- 
able ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking 
thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in 
the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon the 
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the 
heritage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it.' " 

'' Grandmother," said my brother, " I fear, if I 
am to find a wife among those only who keep Sun- 
day well, I shall not have many to choose out of." 



112 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" Never mind, son," said the old lady ; " you know 
you onh^ want one wife, and if you leave this matter 
to God, and don't follow your own opinion, God 
will provide you with a suitable one." So my 
brother followed my grandmother's advice, and be- 
gan to look about to observe who kept the Lord's 
day holy among his neighbours, that he might be 
directed thereby in his choice of a wife. 

Now, the first Sunday after he had held this dis- 
course with his grandmother, my brother went to 
church, as usual ; and in the evening he went to 
look into some of the neighbours' houses, which 
prevented his coming home till we had finished our 
tea. My grandmother and I were sitting by the 
fire, when he came in, while I read the Bible to her. 
So on his entering, she directed me to lay down 
the Bible, while she questioned him thus : " Why, 
grandson, where have you been.?" 

My brother answered, " Grandmother, I have 
borne in mind what you said to me the other day 
about choosing me a wife, and have been this even- 
ing looking in upon some of our neighbours, to see 
how they keep their Sunday." 

" Well," said my grandmother, '^ let us hear what 
kind of folks you have met with." So my brother 
took a chair by us, and told us where he had been, 
and what he had seen. 

" First," said he, " as I came out of church this 
afternoon, I stepped into William Rock's house, to 
see how he and his wife and his daughters were 
spending their Sunday ; for they had not been at 
church. And behold, when I opened the door, I 
heard a very loud noise of people singing and talk- 



THE CATECHISM. I13 

ing ; and going in a little farther, I saw neighbour 
Rock, his wife, and his two daughters, together 
w4th two young men whom I had seen once before, 
all sitting over the fire, with their pots and glasses, 
drinking away ; at least the men were doing so, and 
taking God's name in vain almost every other word. 
I can't say whether the young women were drinking, 
for I did not stay to see ; but they were laughing 
very loud, as if they did not disapprove what was 
going on. So I turned sharp upon my heel, and 
was out of the house in a minute ; saying to myself, 
* Here's no wife for me.' 

" The next place I called at was the widow 
Jones', who keeps the tea and sugar shop. You 
know she has a well-looking smart girl for her 
daughter. So I went into a little parlour, where 
Mrs. Jones and her daughter Betsy were sitting, who 
were very civil, and made me sit down ; but I 
scarcely was got into my chair, when there was 
heard a knocking at the shop-door, and a woman 
came in for a pound of tea. ' Oh !' says Mrs. Jones, 
' Betsy, do go and serve the woman ; and see that 
she gives you good money.' So Betsy went, and 
presently came back ; but she could hardly regain 
her chair, before there was another knocking, and 
somebody came for two pounds of white sugar. 
*Do run, Betsy,' says Mrs. Jones, 'and serve the 
sugar.' I then could not help saying, ' Why, Mrs. 
Jones, do you make a rule of serving your customers 
on a Sunday? I thought it was a sin to buy and sell 
on the Christian Sabbath. I remember my grand- 
mother, when I was quite a lad, showing me these 
words : ' If the people of the land bring ware or 
1 * H 



114 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

any victuals on the Sabbath-day to sell, we should 
not buy it.' Neh. x. 31. And again, 'Bear no 
burden on the Sabbath-day, neither carry forth any 
burden out of your houses on the Sabbath-day, 
neither do ye any work ; but hallow ye the Sabbath- 
day.' Jer. xvii. 21, 22. Mrs. Jones now looked a 
little angry at me, and said, ' What, I suppose I am 
to affront all my customers, because I won't weigh 
a pound of tea on a Sunday ! That would never do 
for a poor widow like me, truly, who have nothing 
to trust to but my shop.' So, when her daughter 
came back, she repeated to her what I had said, and 
Betsy answered, ' Bless me, young man, you are 
mighty particular, to be sure !' To this I made no 
reply," said my brother, " but, soon after, wishing 
them a good evening, I came out of the house." 

"Well," said my grandmother, " and did you call 
anywhere else?" 

" Yes," said my brother, " the next house I stepped 
into was neighbour Dickson's, the tailor. I found 
neighbour Dickson sitting alone, in the kitchen, his 
two daughters being up stairs. I did not see any 
Bible or other good book about ; however, being in- 
vited, I sat down, and we talked upon the weather, 
and upon the sermon. ' Well,' says Dickson, after 
we had sat a while, ' I wish my girls would come 
down, and we would have some tea. Here, Jenny 
and Susan, come dowm ! What are you about there, 
dressing all day long? First, in the morning, to go 
to church ; then again in the evening ; and now, I 
suppose, there will be something new put on to drink 
tea in. My girls,' added the old man, laughing, 
' think of nothing but fine clothes, and it is all their 



THE CATECHISM. 115 

Sunday's work to dress and undress.' ' That is a bad 
way,' said I, ' of spending Sunday.' ' Oh ! as to that,' 
said the old man, ' they might do worse. I don't see 
much harm in that ; young girls always love finery.' 

"By this time, Jenny and Susan came down, and 
truly, they must have spent half the day in dressing 
themselves. Their hair was curled in a score of 
little curls, and they were so bedecked with flounces, 
frills, ribbons, bows, necklaces, and what not, that I 
was sure they could have thought of nothing else all 
the day but bedizening themselves. This won't do 
— these fine ladies will not suit my grandmother, 
thought I ; so I was glad when we had done our tea, 
and I could get away." 

"Well," asked my grandmother, "and have you 
been anywhere else to night?" 

"No," said my brother; "I am come home as I 
went out. I have met with no one family yet who 
keep the Lord's day holy." 

"Well," said my grandmother, "you must have 
patience ; there are many pious families, even in this 
little town, who serve God and delight in his Sab- 
baths ; and God will, in his good time, provide you 
a wife from among some of them." 

The next Sunday, w'hen my brother was coming 
from church in the evening, he met with one Farmer 
Thomson, a decent-looking man, who was going 
home a little way into the country to drink tea with 
the family. This man had a wife, and many daugh- 
ters, who bore good characters, and were constant 
at church ; and he invited my brother to bear him 
company home and drink tea with him. My brother 
was willing to go, because he thought he should 



Il6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

have a good opportunity of seeing how this family 
observed the day ; and perhaps, thought he, I may 
find a w'ife among the farmer's daughters. When 
they reached Mr. Thomson's house, the family w^ere 
all sitting round the fire, in a very clean kitchen. 
They were just come in from church ; but the 
daughters had no finery on, being very neatly and 
prettily dressed. My brother was, at first, much 
pleased with them, and sat down to his tea quite 
contented. But before they had sat long, he began 
to be a little less pleased ; for the farmer, his wife, 
and his daughter, instead of talking of God and his 
words, as we are commanded to do especially on the 
day of the Lord, conversed. of nothing but the busi- 
ness of the ensuing week. "Wife," says the farmer, 
"we shall kill the pig to-morrow morning at sun- 
rise ; see that you get the water hot to scald it." 
"Husband," says the wife, "I wish you had told me 
sooner, for we have no salt in the house. Molly," 
that was her eldest daughter, "mind you go to the 
shop to-morrow and fetch us a peck: and if you 
have any thing else to bring, take the boy with you 
to help you." 

"Yes, mother," says Molly, "for I shall go at the 
same time to the shop for my bonnet ; it's done by 
now, I dare say." 

" Oh !" said another of the daughters, "if you go 
for your bonnet, fetch me a dozen needles, fori broke 
the last in stitching father's shirt." 

" Shirt !" says the mother, " what, is not that shirt 
finished yet, you idle young creature.'* I have a 
good mind, for that, not to give you the new ribbon 
which I promised. See that it's finished to-morrow, 



THE CATECHISM. 117 

Kate, or I'll be as good as my word, and you shall 
not have the ribbon." 

"Dear! mother," said Kate, "have not I been 
knitting brother's stockings all the week? How 
could I knit and sew too?" 

" Sister," said the brother, " that last stocking Is 
too little." 

Thus they went on talking of their affairs all the 
evening ; so that my brother was quite vexed, and 
could not help saying to himself, " These people 
might as well be killing their pigs, and knitting 
their stockings, as to be talking and thinking of 
nothing else all the Sunday. This is not keeping 
the Lord's day holy, and pleasing that God who 
knows the most hidden thoughts of our hearts." So 
my brother came home that Sunday just as he had 
done the Sunday before, without seeing anybody 
likely to suit him for a wife. 

Mary. And did he ever find a family who kept 
the day as It should be kept? 

Mrs. JBrowne. Yes, my dear, he did, at last, by 
the blessing of God ; and I will tell you how It was. 
There was in our town a very poor widow, who 
had been lame many years, and who lived by 
keeping a little shop. She had one daughter ; but 
nobody knew much about them, as they never went 
out, except to church ; and they were so poor that 
nobody cared much to keep company with them. 
It happened, one Sunday, as I and my brother were 
walking by their house, that a smartish-looking wo- 
man went up to their door and knocked. The old 
widow came and opened It. The smart woman said, 
" I want an ounce of snuff." 



it8 stories illustrating 

" I am sorry, Mrs. Williams," said the widow, 
"but I cannot give it to you to-day." 

"What, have you got none.''" said Mrs. Williams. 

"Yes," said the widow^ ; "but to-day is Sunday." 

" Sunday !" said Mrs. Williams : " well, what of 
that.?" 

"We must not buy and sell on a Sunday," replied 
the widow. 

" Oh ! very fine, truly !" said Mrs. Williams ; 
" give me the snuff, and let us hear none of that 
nonsense." 

" I have made a law to myself, for many years, 
that I will not sell on a Sunday," said the widow, 
"unless it is in case of any person being sick, and 
wanting somewhat out of my shop." 

" Pho ! pho !" said Mrs. Williams ; " very fine in- 
deed for such folks as you to have your whims and 
fancies ! I want the snuff, and if you don't give it 
me, I will never come to your shop again." 

The widow answered, " God had commanded us 
to keep his day holy, and on it to rest from all our 
work. I must not break his commandments. 'How 
then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against 
God.'"" Gen. xxxix. 9. 

Mrs. Williams was very angry ; and, calling her 
a canting " Methodist," she .left the house, declaring 
that she would never, as long as she lived, use her 
shop again. 

We were so pleased with this poor widow, that 
we contrived to get acquainted with her ; and as our 
intimacy with her increased, we found that, in all 
things, she endeavoured to keep the commandments 
of God, whom she loved in sincerity and truth. 



THE CATECHISM. 119 

The daughter was no less pious than her mother ; in 
addition to which, she was modest, industrious, and 
gentle. The more my brother saw of her, the more 
he liked her ; till at length she became the object of 
his tenderest regard. Their attachment was mutual ; 
and in due time they were united, with the glad con- 
sent of all their friends. She made him a truly ex- 
cellent wife ; and she could not have been kinder to 
my grandmother if she had been her own child. 
To this connexion my brother owed the greatest part 
of his earthly happiness ; and God was pleased so 
to bless his family, that he would often say to his 
grandmother, " The best piece of advice you ever 
gave me, grandmother, was to choose a wife from a 
family fearing God and reverencing his holy day." 

" Oh !" said little Mary, " that is a pretty story, 
godmother. I shall tell it to my mother when she 
comes back." 

And now, the dinner being come in, Mary and 
Mrs. Browne were obliged to leave off talking. 




STORY XIII. 

The Fifth Commandmeiit — <-<■ Honour thy father and thy 
mother J that thy days may be lojtg in the land which 
the Lord thy God give th thee?'' 



UST as Mrs. Browne had finished telling 
Mary the story of her brother, they heard a 
loud noise on the parade, and, going to the 
door of their room, to mark the cause of it, they saw 
a crowd of black people coming from the bazar 
way ; and they were carrying something in the midst 
of them, which looked like a sick or dead person, 
stretched upon such a bed as the natives use. Mr. 
Williams, a merchant in the place, was leading these 
people on, and they came directly for the barracks. 
On hearing the noise, the men came running out of 
the barrack-rooms ; so that presently all the place 
was in an uproar. It was some time, however, be- 
fore Mrs. Browne could learn the cause of this con- 
fusion ; but when she perceived the crowd making 
toward the second company's barrack, and conveying 
the bed thither, she expressed her apprehensions that 
some fatal accident had happened to one of their 
men. Soon after, Mrs. Browne and Mary saw sev- 
eral of their men running over to the doctor's hunga- 

120 



THE CATECHISM. 1 21 

low; and, scarcely a minute after, one came into 
Mrs. Browne's bei'th^ saying, " Do, pray, Mrs. 
Browne, run over to poor Mrs. Price ; she is in 
dreadful fits ; and bring your smelling-bottle, if you 
have such a thing." 

"What's the matter.?" said Mrs. Browne, while 
she hurried to look for her smelling-bottle. 

" Did you not hear," said the man, " that poor 
Dick Price was found dead in the way from the big 
bazar? and the body is just now brought into the 
barrack by soudagur Williams." 

Mrs. Browne made no answer, but ran off', with- 
out her hat, to the second company's barrack ; little 
Mary following her, frightened out of her wits. 
Before they were half across the way, they heard 
poor Mrs. Price's screams, and very dreadful they 
were. And, oh ! what a sight was there to be seen 
when they got into the barrack. Poor Mrs. Price 
w^as in shocking fits, so that two men could not hold 
her ; and, as fast as she came out of one fit she fell 
into another. The body of poor Dick lay upon the 
bed. It was covered with dust and dirt, the eyes 
were staring open, and the jaws fallen ; for the peo- 
ple had not time to do anything to the corpse, so 
much were they busied about the miserable mother. 
On the legs of the poor corpse were those very boots 
which the unhappy boy had got in such an undutiful 
manner. 

Poor Corporal Price was leaning against the head 
of the cot, his face covered with his hands, and 
groaning in a piteous manner ; and Nelly Price, their 
daughter, stood crying and sobbing violently, some- 
times looking at her father, sometimes at her mother, 
11 



122 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

and then at the corpse of her poor brother. Mrs. 
Browne went up to Mrs. Price, with an earnest desire 
to assist and comfort her ; but the poor distracted 
woman would receive no comfort from any one, still 
continuing her screams in a most dreadful way. 

Mrs. Browne then perceiving that while so many 
were about, she could be of no service, but was rather 
in the way, she took Mary by the hand, and went 
home. But neither she nor Mary could speak for 
some time, so shocked were they at what they had 
seen ; neither could they eat any dinner. Sergeant 
Browne, too, seemed very low. 

About three o'clock they were warned to attend 
poor Dick's funeral, which was to be at sunset, for 
the weather was so exceedingly hot that the corpse 
could not be kept till morning. So Mrs. Browne 
made haste to prepare herself and Mary. 

Mrs. Browne was not one of those who take the 
opportunity of a funeral to show their best bonnet 
and cloak — a shocking custom, which, I am sorry to 
say, too many women fall into. She always used to 
keep a suit of black, neatly wrapped up in a hand- 
kerchief, that in case any accident should happen, 
she might have a proper and decent dress to appear 
in. So, at five o'clock, she put on her black clothes, 
and, tying a black ribbon round Mary's waist, she 
went to the second company's barrack. Poor Mrs. 
Price was not present, the doctor having ordered her 
to the hospital ; and Nelly was gone with her mother. 
But the corporal was in the berths and very sad, in- 
deed, he appeared to be ; but he said, " I will see 
the last of my poor lad — I will see him to his grave." 

There were many women in the berth and about 



THE CATECHISM. 1 23 

it, and everybody was asked to see the corpse before 
the coffin was nailed up. Mrs. Browne therefore 
and Mary went up among the rest. The poor corpse 
was much changed since Mrs. Browne had seen it in 
the forenoon ; for it was now quite yellow, and the 
eyes w^ere sunk in the head. When Mary looked 
into the coffin, she could not help crying ; and she 
said, in her grief, " Poor Dick ! Oh, poor Dick! I 
hope your soul is with the Lord Jesus Christ — I hope 
it is." 

Mrs. Browne put her hand upon Mary's mouth, to 
check her, for she had just touched upon the worst 
part of the whole affair, poor Dick having been 
brought up in wickedness, and lived in it to his 
dying day ; and it is written, " The unrighteous shall 
not inherit the kingdom of God" (i Cor. vi. 9) ; 
therefore, in the death of this poor lad, there was 
little hope. 

The coffin was then nailed up, and the corpse was 
borne to the burying-ground by the men of the com- 
pany, the women following two and two, and poor 
Corporal Price walking next to the coffin. Little 
Mary had never been at a funeral before, and she 
could not help weeping all the way she w^ent ; think- 
ing what a little time it was since she had seen poor 
Dick in the bazar., mocking and making a jest of his 
mother. And now he was carried a poor corpse to 
the grave ; but where was his soul } — that was the 
dreadful thought ! 

When Mary and Mrs. Browne came back from 
the funeral, it was quite dark, and Sergeant Browne 
was come in from parade ; so they sat down to tea. 
They were all very grave, and the sergeant sat some 



124 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

time without speaking ; at last, looking at Mary, 
"My lass," said he, "you have been crying sorely, 
I see." 

Mary. Indeed, godfather (for she always called 
Sergeant Browne her godfather, although he was not 
really so), I am very sorry for poor Dick Price. 

Mrs. Browne then said, " I don't know when I 
have been so grieved with anything as this affair of 
Dick's. Poor lad ! to be cut off so shortly. And I 
cannot learn what was the cause of his death ; at the 
funeral one said one thing, one another ; and I did 
not like to ask any questions before the poor father." 

Sergea^it Si'owne. The affair was a very dread- 
ful one, and the v^iiole history of poor Dick, from 
first to last, should be a warning to all parents w4io 
are so unkind and so impious as to withhold the rod 
from their children. 

" Come hither, Mary," continued the sergeant, "I 
would have a little serious talk with you ; mayhap 
you may learn a lesson to-day which may do you 
good, with God's blessing, to your dying day, and 
for ever after. What are children by nature, my 
lass.^ Are they holy and innocent? or are they 
grievously prone to sin and wickedness.^ 

Mary. Children are all sinful. 

Sergeant Browne. What, all^ Mary ? 

Mary. Yes, every one. 

Sergeant Browne. You have answered right. 
Even little children are by nature exceedingly 
wicked ; and if they continue unchanged until their 
death, if they receive not a new nature, and a clean 
heart, on this side the grave, they cannot go to 
heaven. And now, Mary, tell me, can fathers and 



THE CATECHISM. 125 

mothers change their children's hearts? — Could your 
mother, for example, give you a clean heart? 

Mary. No, to be sure, she could not. God only 
can give us new hearts : the blood of the Lord 
Jesus Christ only can wash us from our sins. 

Sergeant Browne. True, my dear ; your mother 
cannot make your heart clean : that, after all, must 
be God's work. 'Tis the work of God the Holy 
Ghost to change the heart : but still, a father or 
mother must do all that is in their power toward the 
good of their children. There are two means which 
God hath, in his book, pointed out as necessary to 
be used with children for their improvement. Do 
you know what these are ? 

Mary. No, godfather, I don't. 

Sergea7it Browne. These two means are, first, 
Teaching them the word of God, and secondly, 
Correcting them for their faults. And, first, what is 
correction ? 

Mary. Oh ! I know. It is chastising and pun- 
ishing people when they are naughty. 

Sei'geant Browne. Are fathers and mothers, do 
you think, ordered in the Bible to correct their chil- 
dren when they are naughty ? 

Mary. Yes, I know they are. For almost the 
first verses I learned, were these: "Foolishness is 
bound in the heart of a child ; but the rod of correc- 
tion shall drive it far from him." Prov. xxii. 15. 
And then there is : " Chasten thy son while there is 
hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." 
Prov. xix. 18. " He that spareth his rod hateth his 
son : but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." 
Prov. xiii. 24. 
11* 



126 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Sergeant Brozvne. Then you see, my dear, that 
we are commanded in the Bible to correct our chil- 
dren, and that it is even wicked not to do it. But is 
correcting them the only method we ought to take, 
in order to the cleansing of their hearts? 

Mary, We should teach them God's words. 

Sergeant Srowne. When should we teach them 
the words of God } 

Mary thought for a short time, and then said : 
" Therefore shall ye lay up these my w^ords in your 
heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign 
upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets be- 
tween your eyes. And ye shall teach them your 
children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine 
house, and when thou walkest by the way, when 
thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And 
thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy 
house, and upon thy gates." Deut. xi. 18-20. 

The sergeant was w^ell satisfied with Mary's an- 
swer, for he stroked her head with his hand, which 
he always did when he was pleased with her. " But, 
my lass," said he, " to return to poor Dick Price and 
his father. I have now been twelve years in the 
same regiment with Corporal Price and his wife. 
The first six years I was in the same company and 
in the same room with them. Poor Dick and Nell 
were then little ones. Many and many a sore argu- 
ment have I had with Price and his wife about those 
children. Do what they would, he could never be 
induced to chastise them : neither he nor his wife 
would lift a hand against them : no, nor give them 
any other correction. Then, as to teaching them 



THE CATECHISM. 127 

God's word ; the children were so unruly, that had 
the parents been so minded, they could not have 
made them learn without frequent correction ; and, 
as I said, Price and his wife always set their faces 
against that. 

" Poor Mrs. Price ! she would often say, ' I never 
beat my children, not I.' And, to be sure, those 
children were the plague of the whole barrack- 
room : there was not a bad word nor a bad trick 
which was not common with them. 

" Price, I remember, once had a great many 
words with me about the boy ; and I had hard work 
to prevent a downright quarrel with him on the 
occasion. One afternoon, having just received some 
arrack to use on a march, I put a little of it into 
my flask, and set it by. The boy, Dick, saw where 
I had put it ; and, when my back was turned, creep- 
ing into the berth, he whipt up the flask, and had the 
dram at his mouth in a moment. Just then I hap- 
pened to turn ; and, seeing what he was about, I 
gave the child two or three smart raps with my 
hand. His father saw it, and came running toward 
me in a violent passion ; when, instead of correcting 
the child, he took him in his arms, and was so angry 
with me for having touched him, that, as I said be- 
fore, I had dilflculty to avoid a dreadful quarrel : 
and for more than a year after his wife would not 
speak to mine, on account of this matter. And thus 
this foolish father and mother encouraged their poor 
child in his wickedness ; and all out of pretended 
love, forgetting that which is written : ' Withhold 
not correction from the child ; for if thou beatest 
him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat 



128 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

him with the rod, and shalt dehver his soul from 
helL' Prov. xxiii. 13, 14. 

'' And thus," continued Sergeant Browne, " they 
went on indulging Dick more and more, till he be- 
came quite above their hands. And this morning — 
only this morning — he asked his father for a rupee^ 
to buy some liquor. His father refused him ; upon 
which, dreadful to tell, he struck his father. The 
father then, being enraged, gave the boy a severe 
thrashing, saying, 'You young dog, I wish I had 
given you this ten years ago.' Dick ran out of the 
barracks, and took off into the great bazar^ al- 
though his mother called to him, and entreated him 
to come back. This was about seven in the morn- 
ing ; and at about eight o'clock he was seen by one 
of our men bartering a gold breast-pin of his 
mother's for some arrack. 

"The man asked him what he was doing there, 
and how he came by the pin ; and would have had 
him return with him to the barracks ; but he refused, 
at the same time cursing his father for having 
struck him. 

" The man was forced to leave him, it being near 
roll-call : so it is supposed that he procured and 
drank such a quantity of spirits as, in addition to 
the uncommon heat of the sun, caused his death ; 
for it has been, you know, an exceeding hot day. 

"Mr. Williams, who keeps the great Europe shop, 
passing by about twelve o'clock, found the body of 
the poor unhappy boy on the great road, just oppo- 
site the old tree, as you come out of the bazar. He 
was then quite dead, and had been so (Mr. Williams 



THE CATECHISM. 129 

thought) some time ; for the crows and adjutants 
were come to the body." 

" Oh !" said Mrs. Browne, " this is, indeed, a 
most shocking story. Poor unhappy Dick ! this 
should be a warning to all parents." 

Sergeant Bi'owiie. Yea, and to all children, to 
take care how they disobey their parents. You 
know the fifth commandment — " Honour thy father 
and thy mother ; that thy days may be long in the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 

Mrs. Browne. Poor Dick ! his days, indeed, 
were very short. '' Whoso curseth his father or his 
mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure dark- 
ness." Prov. XX. 20. 

When Mary was put to bed, she could not sleep ; 
so entirely were her thoughts taken up with the sad 
end of poor Dick, and his disobedience to his 
parents. And as she lay awake in the night, she 
began to look into herself, and to ask herself how 
she had behaved to her parents. And now she 
remembered how often she had neglected to obey 
her father's and her mother's commands, and how 
she had despised many things which they had said 
to her ; and she thanked God that she had not been 
cut off in the midst of her wickedness, like poor 
Dick Price, before she knew the Lord Jesus Christ, 
in whose name only forgiveness of sins can be 
obtained. 

Let the readers of this relation now go and con- 
sider how they have behaved to their fathers and 
mothers, their masters and teachers ; and wherein 
they have been taught to conduct themselves better 
than poor Dick Price. 

I 



STORY XIV. 

The Sixth Conunandjnent — " Thou shalt do no 7nurder!' 




HE next morning Mrs. Browne meant to 
have gone to see Mrs. Price ; but it was so 
hot that she was afraid to venture till even- 
ing. So she and Mary, after breakfast, sat down to 
work ; and, while they were sitting, they heard two 
women, wives of the soldiers, beginning to quarrel 
in the barrack-room. These two women had come 
out together in the same ship, and once were great 
friends, professing an extraordinary attachment to 
each other. But their love was not of the right sort ; 
and being women of no religion, the first cause of 
offence that happened between them proved the oc- 
casion of their falling out ; and from that time they 
became bitter enemies. 

The names of these two women were Kitty Spence 
and Fanny Bell. Their husbands were both private 
soldiers, and quiet men enough ; but they were much 
to blame in not compelling their wives to be quiet 
too ; for in such matters as these it is the duty of a 
man to rule his wife. Fann}^ Bell's berth was in one 
corner of the barracks, close to Mrs. Browne's room ; 
and Kitty Spence's was in the other corner over 
against it, so that these great enemies, unfortunately, 

130 



THE CATECHISM. 131 

lived too near each other. Hence it was no uncom- 
mon thing for them to set the whole place in an up- 
roar ; for when they were enraged, they minded 
nothing that they said — there was no name too bad 
for them to give each other ; thus most unhappily 
verifying those words of St. James : " The tongue 
is a little member, and boasteth great things. Be- 
hold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! And 
the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity ; so is the 
tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole 
body, and setteth on fire the course of nature : and 
it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, 
and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the 
sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind ; but 
the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil, 
full of deadly poison." James iii. 5, 8. 

Now there happened to be, at that time, in this 
place, a soudagur., called Dawson, who had a wife, 
a flashy kind of light woman, who used to keep 
company with all the worst Avomen in the barracks. 
She always had one or other with her of this de- 
scription ; and, while they were in her favour, which, 
perhaps, might be for two or three months, more or 
less, just as they pleased her, she would load thera 
wnth presents — case-bottles of liquor, new gowns, 
both white and coloured, Europe ribbons, gloves, 
habit-skirts, silver spoons, bugles, brooches, and 
everything you can think of. When the regiment 
first came to this place, Kitty Spence was the fa- 
vourite of Mrs. Dawson ; and she used to come 
home from the sottdagur's in an evening loaded 
with all manner of presents, to the envy of most in 
the barrack, but more especially of Fanny Bell, who. 



132 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

when she saw these fine things spread out in Kitty's 
berths would be ready to die of spite, and would 
say all kinds of malicious and provoking things of 
Kitty. 

But, after a while, Mrs. Dawson got tired of Kitty, 
and then Fanny Bell contrived to get into her favour ; 
and no\v she, in her turn, came home with her bun- 
dles of new clothes, and her case-bottles of liquor, 
and her dishes of cold meat. Then was Kitty ready 
to die of envy ; and the brawls and quarrels between 
these women became every day more and more bit- 
ter, so that poor Mrs. Browne was often disturbed 
by their contentions both night and day ; and many 
and many a time did she strive to make peace be- 
tween them. Mrs. Browne was one who always 
kept these words of our Lord in mind : "Blessed are 
the peace-makers, for they shall be called the chil- 
dren of God." ^latt. V. 9. But all that Mrs. Browne 
could do was to no purpose, there was no peace to 
be made. 

The next morning after poor Dick Price's funeral, 
as Mrs. Browne and Mary were sitting at work in 
their room, the door being opened toward the large 
barrack-room, on account of the heat, it happened 
that Fanny Bell came in from Mrs. Dawson's with 
a large bundle of things, which she began to unfold 
and spread upon her cot. Kitty Spence was in her 
berths pla3'ing at cards with her husband and two 
other men ; and, it seems, she had taken a dram ex- 
traordinary that morning, for the men had just got 
their pay. 

As soon as Fanny came in, Kitty's eye was off the 
cards in a minute ; and she began muttering. 



THE CATECHISM. 133 

** What a bundle that creature there has brought 
with her ! She did not come honestly by all those 
things, I am sure. Mrs. Dawson is not quite such a 
fool neither, as to bestow all those things on so good- 
for-nothing a hussy." 

All this time, Fanny Bell went on taking the 
things out of the bundle, and spreading them upon 
the cot, on purpose to spite her neighbour. First, 
she pulled out a Barcelona handkerchief, not a bit 
the worse for wear ; then a handsome Europe cotton 
gown, as good as new; and, lastly, a black silk 
cloak, trimmed with excellent lace. At sight of the 
cloak, Kitty Spence could refrain no longer ; but 
down went the cards, and up she got, beginning to 
abuse Fanny Bell in a voice so loud that she made 
the whole barrack-room ring again, using such 
language as I would not repeat for the whole world. 

Fanny Bell replied in the same manner ; when all 
the men were soon gathered round them, some call- 
ing, shame upon them ! and others encouraging them 
for their own entertainment. The sergeants came 
forward, and tried to silence them, fearing lest they 
should get blamed by the captain for the disturbance ; 
but all in vain. Mrs. Browne came put, and, in a 
kind way, endeavoured to persuade them to be quiet ; 
but she might as well have tried to quiet the wind 
when it is blowing a storm. They went on scolding 
and raging like two furies ; their faces became as 
red as a piece of scarlet cloth, their eyes flashed fire 
at each other, and every wicked and provoking word 
which they could think of, they applied to each 
other. 

At length, Fanny Bell, trying to force her way 
12 



134 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

toward Kitty Spence, would have struck her ; but 
some of the men kept her back, while others held 
Kitty Spence ; wdiereupon, Kitty Spence, finding she" 
could not get at her enemy, took up, in her rage, a 
three-legged wooden stool, upon which she had been 
sitting to play at cards, and threw it, with all her 
force, at poor Fanny Bell. The corner of the stool, 
which was sharp, struck the side of Fanny's head, 
near the eye ; and it was her death-blow — down she 
dropped, and never spoke after. 

When Fanny fell, the people were frightened, and 
so was Kitty Spence ; though nobody, at first, 
thought she was dead. But when they began to 
suspect that Fanny was more hurt than at first ap- 
peared, the noise in the barrack was hushed in a 
moment, so that one might have heard a pin fall. 

" You have done her business," said one of the 
men, who tried to lift up the body. " I fear, you 
wicked hussy, that you have killed her." 

Kitty turned deadly pale. The people lifted the 
body upon the bed, and ran over for the doctor ; but, 
before he could reach the place, she had ceased to 
breathe. They that stood by knew the moment of 
death, by a dreadful groan which she uttered just as 
she breathed her last ; and she had been dead some 
minutes when the doctor came in and tried to bleed 
the body. 

As soon as Kitty Spence found that Fanny was 
really dead, she was like a mad woman. " Oh ! 
what shall I do? what shall I do?" said she, " I shall 
be hanged, and then I shall go to hell. I am a mur- 
derer." Then turning to one of the sergeants, she 
said, " But I did not mean to murder her — I did not, 



THE CATECHISM. 135 

God Is my witness ; God knows that I had not a 
thought of the kind !" 

" You wicked woman," said one of the men, whose 
be7'tJi was next to hers, " have I not heard you say, 
twenty and twenty times, that you hated poor Fanny 
Bell? And did I not tell you, many and many a 
time from the Bible ' that he who hateth his brother 
is a murderer?' " i John iii. 15. 

"Well, well," says the sergeant, "this matter must 
be talked of in another place." So saying, he or- 
dered a file of men to carry Kitty Spence to the 
guard-house. 

In the mean time, the surgeon, having tried every- 
thing he could think of to restore poor Fanny Bell 
to life, but all in vain, left the body to Mrs. Browne 
and the other women, who laid it out as decently and 
respectably as they could. 

Mrs. Browne, and two other women, with poor 
Fanny Bell's husband, who was on guard when the 
accident happened, watched the corpse that night ; 
and, early in the morning, they attended the body to 
the grave, which was hard by that of poor Dick 
Price. 

When Mrs. Browne came back from the funeral, 
what with her distress concerning Dick Price, to- 
gether with her fright and fatigue about Fanny Bell, 
she became quite ill ; and the doctor ordered her to 
the hospital, perceiving that she had a great deal of 
fever. She sent immediately to Sergeant Mills to 
know what was to be done with Mary, as Mrs. Mills 
was not come home ; when the sergeant himself 
came over, saying, " Do, Mrs. Browne, take Mary 
with you, if she can afford you any comfort. May- 



136 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

hap, now you are sick, the child may be pretty com- 
pany for you ; and the doctor says that your fever is 
not catching." Mrs. Browne was very glad of 
Mary's company, and Mary was quite pleased to go 
with her, for she loved her godmother with all her 
heart. So Mary and Mrs. Browne w^ere put in a 
doolie^ and carried to the hospital. 

When they got to the hospital, they were placed 
in the same ward where there were three other 
women. Poor Mrs. Price was one of them ; another 
was one Mrs. Thompson, a dressy kind of woman, 
and not of the best character, who had come to the 
hospital with a sick husband ; and the third was a 
Mrs. Francis, who also had accompanied her hus- 
band thither. 

Mrs. Francis' berth in the hospital was the very 
next to Mrs. Browne's, a circumstance which afforded 
Mrs. Browne peculiar comfort ; for in all the bar- 
racks, or perhaps in all this country, there was not 
a more holy woman, high or low, rich or poor, 
than Mrs. Francis. As soon as she saw Mrs. 
Browne, she ran up to her, helped her to her bed, 
and brought her a nice dish of tea in less time than 
some women would have taken to talk about it ; and 
w4ien she had seen her husband served with every- 
thing he wanted for the night, she left her little boy 
Thomas to take care of his father, and came to Mrs. 
Browne's bedside. " I am sorry, my friend, to see 
you here," said she ; " but I am glad that you are so 
near me, that I may be able to do any little thing for 
you that may be necessary." 

Mrs. Browne thanked her, and said, " I believe a 
few days' quiet W\\\ set me up ; for the sad accidents 



THE CATECHISM. 137 

which have lately happened in the barracks are, I 
believe, the sole cause of my sickness." 

Mrs. Browne then told Mrs. Francis the whole 
story of poor Fanny Bell's death ; upon which Mrs. 
Francis answered, " How dreadful a thing is it to in- 
dulge malice and envy in the heart ! Ill-will begins 
with an angry word, and ends in murder." 

Mi'S. Browne. Do you remember that verse in 
Proverbs xvii. 14? — "The beginning of strife is as 
when one letteth out water ; therefore leave off con- 
tention before it be meddled with." 

Airs. Francis. I am sure, Mrs. Browne, when I 
have looked into my own heart, and considered the 
malice, and envy, and ill-will which occasionally 
lodge in it, I have been led to think ray heart more 
like a diabolical than a human heart. 

Mrs. Browne. Indeed, Mrs. Francis, we poor 
human creatures are by nature little better than 
devils ; " being filled with all unrighteousness, forni- 
cation, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full 
of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whis- 
perers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, 
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to 
parents," etc. Rom. i. 29, etc. But there is One who, 
if we apply to him aright, will cleanse us from all 
our uncleannesses. 

" Ah !" says Mrs. Francis, " that is true, Mrs. 
Browne ; there is One who can, and will, give us 
new and holy hearts, if we diligently ask him." 
Then, turning to Mary, she said, " My little girl, 
who is it that can wash us from our sins, making us 
holy and lovely, even as he is hiinself?" 

Little Mary answered, " I know who it is. It is 
12 * 



138 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

the Lord Jesus Christ, who washes us from our 
sins in his blood. 

Mrs. Browne then asked Mar}^, " What was that 
new commandment which the Lord Jesus Christ has 
left with us.?" 

Mary. Is it not in St. John's gospel, god- 
mother? — "Anew commandment I give unto you, 
That ye love one another ; as 1 have loved you, that 
ye also love one another. By this shall all men know 
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
another." John xiil. 34, 35. 

Then said Mrs. Browaie, "You saw yesterday, my 
dear child, the dreadful consequences of giving way 
to hatred ; you saw the angry words of those poor 
women end in murder. Let us pray, my dear child, 
that God will, for his dear Son's sake, take all malice 
out of our hearts ; and that, with the assistance of 
the Holy Spirit of God, we may be enabled to love 
each other, even as God loved us. ' For herein was 
manifested the love of God toward us, because that 
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that 
we might live through him.'" i John iv. 9. 

By this time it w^as late ; so Mrs. Francis knelt 
down by Mrs. Browne's bed, and prayed with her ; 
after which she retired. 



STORY XV. 




The Seventh Cominandment — " Thou shalt not commit 
adultery.^'' 

HE next morning, Mrs. Browne found her- 
self so much better that she was able to sit 
up in her bed ; and, it being Sunday, she 
spent the morning, after she had breakfasted, in 
hearing Mary read and in catechising her. She 
asked her a great many questions about the com- 
mandments, which Mary answered very prettily. 
But when they came to the seventh commandment — 
which is, " Thou shalt not commit adultery" — Mary 
said, " Godmother, what does that commandment 
mean .?" 

Mrs. Browne answered, "My dear, it is not al- 
together necessary, at your age, that you should 
know all the unclean and shameful sorts of sin 
which it forbids ; yet I believe I can make you 
understand a little of this matter. Do you not know 
that when the first man, Adam, was made, there 
was no fit companion found for him, and that the 
Lord said it was not good for man to be alone ; and 
that then God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, 
and while he was asleep tlie Lord God took out one 
of the man's ribs, that is, one of the bones out of his 

139 



140 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

side, and of that he made a woman, and brought her 
to the man to be his wife?" 

^' Oh !" said Mary, "I remember that very well 5 
and also what Adam said when he saw the woman : 
'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my 
flesh : she shall be called Woman, because she was 
taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his 
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his 
wife ; and they shall be one flesh.' " Gen. ii. 33, 24. 

J\Irs. Brownie. Right, my dear : and our Lord 
Jesus Christ, when speaking of marriage, said : 
"Have ye not read, that he which made them at the 
beginning, made them male and female ; wherefore 
they are no more twain, but one flesh.? What there- 
fore God hath joined together, let no man put 
asunder." Alatt. xix. 4-7. And now, my dear, you 
understand, that if a man leaves his wife, and goes 
to live with another woman, he breaks the seventh 
commandment ; and if a woman leaves her husband, 
and goes to live with another man, she breaks the 
seventh commandment : and it is a very great and 
dreadful wickedness, and one which, unless repented 
of, and washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, will surely bring those wdio are guilty of it 
to hell-fire. 

Mary. But, suppose a w^oman does not love her 
husband, and suppose he should use her ill, must 
she stay with him.? Is not that hard? 

Mj'S. JBi'owne. Whether it is hard or not, my 
dear, we shall not be an}' happier for seeking the 
remedy in sin. We must obey God's command- 
ments : and, sooner or later, we shall find the 
good of it. 



THE CATECHISM, 14 1 

Just as Mrs. Browne spoke these last words, John 
Francis, the husband of Mrs. Francis, who could 
not help hearing Mrs. Browne's discourse, as he was 
sitting on the side of his cot, which was the next to 
hers, called Mary to him, and said, " Come here, 
my little girl : my wife and Thomas are gone up to 
the barracks, and, as you are talking on this subject, 
I will make use of the occasion to show you what a 
good wife can, with God's blessing, do for a bad 
husband." 

JOHN FRANCIS' STORY. 

"When I married my wife, we were both young ; 
and she was as well-looking a woman as any you 
could see. Just after our marriage, we came out to 
this country. On board ship, I don't know how it 
was, I took a vast inclination for liquor ; and, when 
I came first into this country, I was so fond of 
spirits that I was drunk twice a day. Every ^/^^ 
that I could lay hold of went for liquor. I was 
ever in the guard-house, and near being flogged 
more than once. 

"My poor wife in the mean time was in want of 
everything, and often, shame to tell ! wanted a meal : 
while she got from me many a hard word and blow, 
wicked wretch that I was ! But the way in which 
she behaved under these hard trials proved that the 
Holy Spirit of God was with her: since no woman, 
without God's grace, could have behaved as she 
did. 

"With the poor rags she had, she used to keep 
herself as tight and clean as possible. We had not 
much in our bei'th; but the little we had she always 



142 S TOBIES ILLUSTRATING 

kept in its place, and rubbed quite bright. No 
person in the barrack ever heard her complain of 
me ; nor did she ever, while I was in liquor, say 
anything to aggravate or provoke me. Yet she 
would often take occasion to talk to me of my 
wicked ways, when she saw me a little sober, and 
likely, as she thought, to take it well ; telling me, 
that my evil habits would not only disgrace and ruin 
me as a soldier, but would, if not repented of, bring 
me to everlasting punishment in hell. 

"But, in all these discourses, I never once heard 
her complain of what she herself suffered by my 
disorderly conduct. When she talked to me in this 
manner, I used to be, for the most part, sulky ; but 
sometimes, as I before said, I was so wicked as to 
beat her, and that, once or twice, sorely ; but still 
her patience never failed her ; for the grace of God 
was with her. I have often found her, when I came 
home at night, crying very bitterly ; which used to 
provoke me to use her more and more cruelly : and 
being vexed with myself for my base behaviour to 
such a good woman, I longed even to discover some 
fault in her, thinking that any blemish in her would 
plead an excuse for me. 

" One night, I had been drinking in another man's 
bei'th^ v/ith a set of young men of my own wicked 
sort. I came home in very ill humour ; and finding 
her reading the Bible, by a little bit of candle, I 
went to bed, not saying one word to her, and. being 
drunk, was asleep in a minute. It might be about 
an hour after, I awoke, something soberer, and she 
was not come to bed. I just looked through the 
curtain, prepared to assail her with a volley of 



THE CATECHISM. 143 

wicked oaths and curses, when I saw her kneeling 
at her box, and heard her praying : and being earn- 
est in her prayers, she spoke louder than she was 
aware of. She was praying for me ; beseeching 
God, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, to turn the 
heart of her dear husband, (for so she termed me, 
little as I deserved it), and to make us as happy 
together as we once had been ; giving me timely 
repentance, that I might not die in my sins, and be 
eternally miserable. I was ashamed of myself; but 
my heart was not changed by this. I composed 
myself again in my bed, and lay quite sullen and 
out of humour, till I once more fell asleep. I could 
not bear to think that my wife should be so much 
better than myself; and, the very next day, got 
drunk again. Now many women, even good v/o- 
men, would have lost all patience with such a hus- 
band, and have ceased to pray for him ; but this was 
not my wife's case. 

"About six months after this, God was pleased to 
give us a little son ; not this that we have at present, 
but another, who is now, I trust, wuth God. All 
the time this poor boy lived, which was only a year, 
I behaved very ill to my wife ; and, even after the 
dear child died, I still continued to get drunk, fre- 
quently beating and abusing my poor wife. 

"There w^ere several people who would have 
tempted her to leave me after the child died : one 
rich gentleman, in particular, who promised her all 
manner of riches and finery, if she would but come 
and live with him ; for, as I before said, she was 
then a very comely woman : but she always an- 
swered, 'No, having given myself to my husband, 



144 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

I will remain with him until death. What God hath 
joined together, let no man put asunder.' 

"This was her answer to everyone (as I after- 
ward was told) who would have persuaded her to 
leave me. And, through all my ill use of her, she 
remained a faithful, patient and obedient wife, trust- 
ing in God, that he would deliver her, in his good 
time, out of her trouble. Our poor little boy died 
at Dinapore, and was buried there. We put a 
monument over him ; and my wife used often, more 
especially when I treated her ill, to go and ^^eep 
over the grave of her poor innocent babe. 

" It happened, one New Year's afternoon, that there 
was no parade, and I got drunk in another man's 
bei'th ', yet not so drunk as not to know v^'hat I was 
doing. About four in the afternoon, I had occasion 
to come to my own berths for something I wanted, 
where I found my wife sitting with her Bible in her 
hand. I was in a very ill temper, and soon found 
something to quarrel with her about. I called her 
several bad names. She made no answer. 'What!' 
said I, ' are you sulky ?' She still did not speak. I 
lifted up my hand and gave her a^Dlow ; and, from 
one blow, I went on to another, till I beat her so 
sorely that she was constrained to run out of the 
berths and out of the barracks. I did not care 
much for this, just at the time, for my heart was 
quite hardened, but returned to my companions, as 
if nothing had happened. 

" Well, it was dusk when I went back to my berth; 
and my wife was not returned. I always loved a 
cup of tea in the afternoon ; but there was now no 
one to get it ready — there was no one to light the 



THE CATECHISM. 1 45 

candle or put the cot to rights. I sat myself down, 
tried to whistle, and put off my uneasiness ; but, 
somehow, I could not. I went to the door, to see if 
she was coming ; but could not see her. I went 
back to my berth^ and sat down again. 

" Somehow or other, though I tried to put it off, I 
could not help being very uneasy. I thought of my 
dead child, and of my wife, and how ill I had used 
my poor woman, and what a loss it would be to me 
if anything should happen to her ; and, all I could 
do, I could not shake off these thoughts, they came 
upon me with such force. After about half an hour, 
the darkness coming on apace, I went again into the 
verandah^ to look for her, and just at the door I 
met Mrs. Simpson coming in. 'Mrs. Simpson,' said 
I, ' have you seen my wife an}- where ?' 

" ' No,' said she ; ' what, have you lost her.'* Well, 
you deserve it. She is a hundred times too good for 
you ; and, if I had been in her place, I would have 
left you long and long ago, and gone to those who 
would have used me better.' 

" This was all the answer I could get from her. 
Neither did I obtain more satisfaction from others 
whom I asked concerning my wife ; for one said, 
' If you have lost your wife, it is no more than you 
deserve.' And another said, ' What, you want to 
give her another beating, do you .'" 

" It was now night, and would have been quite dark, 
had it not been for the moon ; and I began to think 
that my poor wife had, perhaps, been driven by my 
hard usage to go and live with some gentleman, who 
would carry her away, and I should never see her 
more. I was almost mad at the thought of this ; but 
13 K 



146 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

I might have been easy enough, for my wife was too 
good a woman, ever to think of going to live with 
another man. 

" So, as I said, it was evening, and there was no 
light but from the moon. I went out of the barrack, 
and, not knowing which way to look, turned toward 
the burying-ground, for I knew that she often went 
there. I found the gate of the burying-ground 
locked, but there was a place where the wall had 
been broken down in the late rains, and which had 
not yet been repaired. I made toward that place, 
and went in. I made my way among the tombs 
toward the grave of my poor boy ; and what do 
you think I should see but my poor wife praying 
there ! 

"I went softly up toward her, and heard her pray 
aloud for me, that God would be pleased to soften 
and turn my heart, and to deliver me from the power 
of sin and the devil ; that, in the world to come, she 
and I, with our departed infant, might, for his dear 
Son's sake, be raised into everlasting joy. Her 
prayers were often interrupted by her sobs. It 
pleased the Almighty God, as I heard this, to break 
my stubborn heart, by the power, no doubt, of his 
Holy Spirit. All my vile carriage toward my dear 
wife in a moment came before me. I ran to her, 
and, falling on my knees, I begged her pardon for 
all my wicked behaviour ; praying to God, very 
earnestly, that he would, for his dear Son's sake, give 
me a new heart, and make me especially to abhor 
the sin of drunkenness, which had been the occasion 
of all my other grievous offences. 

" I cannot tell you how transported my poor wife 



THE CATECHISM. 147 

was when she saw me kneeling and praying to God 
for a new heart, in the name of his dear Son. She 
put her arms round my neck, and her tears fell upon 
my face. ' Oh ! my dear, dear husband !' said she, 
'• God has now heard my prayers for you. I knew 
he would, sooner or later. I was sure he would.' 

" When we returned home, our neighbours were 
surprised to see us coming in so lovingly ; observing 
me to sit down quietly in my berth., and hearing me 
speak gently to my wife. 

" From that time, God be praised, I found a great 
change in myself. Not that I altogether left off my 
sinful customs at once ; but, by the grace of God, I 
dropped them one by one, taking up better in their 
stead; my dear wife, all the while, leading me on 
from one good habit to another, and making all good 
things so pleasant to me that, I believe I may say, 
for the last eight years, that is, ever since the birth 
of our little lad Thomas, there has scarcely been 
such another happy pair in all India, ay, or in the 
world besides. And thus, my little girl, you see 
what a good wife, with the grace of God, may do 
for a bad husband ; and I hope, should you ever 
live to be married, that you will remember this story." 

Mary had scarcely time to thank Francis for the 
story which he had told her, before they were dis- 
turbed, and almost deafened by a dreadful noise in 
the same ward, the occasion of which I will tell 
you. 

In the berth nearly over against Mrs. Browne's, 
was one John Thomson, lying very ill of a fever. 
His wife, Peggy Thomson, was, as I said before, 



148 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

none of the best of women. Early that morning 
she had got up from her poor sick husband, and, 
putting on one of her smartest gowns, and her best 
bonnet, not forgetting, like the wicked Qiieen Jezebel, 
to paint her face, she took herself off, nobody knows 
where, but I fear it was not to any proper place, 
leaving poor Thomson to the care of the coolies. 
And truly the poor fellow would have been ill taken 
care of, had it not been for one James Law, a godly 
man, in the same company with Thomson, who, 
hearing how ill he was, came down from the barracks 
to see him, wath his Bible in his hand. 

James Law was sitting by poor Thomson, endeav- 
ouring to prepare him for death, should it be God's 
will for him to die, and to bring him, by God's grace, 
to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom 
he had ever, poor man, remained in gross and wilful 
ignorance, w^hen the doctor came round. The 
doctor felt poor Thomson's pulse, and said, '^ Why, 
Thomson, you are better to-day. Don't you feel 
yourself so.?" 

••Doctor," said Thomson, "I think I am; and I 
think I should be still better if you would allow me 
a little wine." 

" Not for the whole world !" said the doctor. 
" When your fever is gone, you shall have wine ; 
but one glass now might cost you your life." 

The doctor being gone, James Law went on read- 
ing, and poor Thomson seemed to give heed ; and 
thus they were employed till about twelve o'clock, 
when Peggy Thomson came in. She had no need 
of paint then, for her face was as red as fire, I sup- 
pose from what she had been drinking. Coming 



THE CATECHISM. 149 

up into the berths and first looking that the doctor 
was not near, she pulled out a bottle from under her 
sleeves, and pouring some of its contents into a tin 
pint, she gave it to her husband to drink, before 
James Law perceived what she was doing. 

Now Peggy Thomson was afraid that she should 
get a scolding from her husband for going out ; and 
she knew that there was but one way of stopping 
his tongue, and that was, by giving him a draught 
of what he loved best — strong liquor ; and whether 
it killed him or not, she was utterly careless. 

" What's that you are giving your husband.?" said 
James Law. 

" Toast and water," answered Peggy ; for she 
knew, well enough, that the doctor had forbid her 
husband anything strong. 

'• Let me see," said James Law, taking the empty 
pint, and smelling it ; upon which he instantly cried 
out, " Oh, you wicked woman, it is brandy ! and 
you have killed your husband." 

"Brandy!" said she, "and if it is, what*s that to 
you .'* Mind your own affairs !" 

"Where have you put the bottle!" said James 
Law ; for she had slipped the bottle under the bed- 
clothes. 

" Mind your own affairs, you Methodist," said she ; 
" who sent for you, you canting fellow .?" using many 
other words still more violent and abusive, and in so 
loud a tone as to make the ward ring again ; where- 
by all the sick people were disturbed, and some of 
them roused from their sleep. In the mean while 
poor Thomson began to feel the effects of the brandy 
he had taken ; his fever returning upon him, raging 
13 * 



150 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

and burning ; and his head becoming so disordered 
as to make him rave and storm even louder than his 
wife. 

The whole hospital was presently in an uproar. 
The sergeant came running in ; but for some time, 
it was impossible to make out, clearly, what was 
the matter : for Peggy said one thing, and James Law 
another ; while poor Thomson, who but a short time 
before was lying at ease on his bed, listening calmly 
to the word of God, and showing many signs of 
doing well both in body and soul, was raving like a 
madman, and in danger of losing both — all through 
the wickedness of his wife ; who, as I have said, 
gave him the liquor, as she had often done before, to 
prevent his inquiring into her vicious courses. 

The uproar and disturbance were so great that 
they were forced to send for the doctor ; who soon 
discovered, by the symptoms which poor Thomson 
exhibited, that James Law's story was true. More- 
over, the brandy bottle was found under the bed- 
clothes ; and, indeed, if it had not been found, James 
Law's word would, any day, have been taken against 
Peggy Thomson's. So Peggy was ordered out of 
the hospital, and forbidden ever to come into it 
again. But she had done for her poor husband. 
His fever came on him again through drinking the 
brandy, and it was his death ; although he lingered 
longer than was expected, for he lived till that day 
fortnight ; but he suffered very much. 

James Law, Mrs. Francis and Mrs. Browne, when 
she got a little better, did all they could for him. 
James Law read and prayed continually with him, 
when he was off duty ; but whether he was able to 



THE CATECHISM. 151 

profit by it or not, God only, who can look into 
man's heart, can tell. 

The day poor Thomson was buried, Mrs. Browne, 
being still in the hospital, for her illness was a 
tedious one, made Mary learn these verses, from the 
last chapter of Solomon's Proverbs : " Who can find 
a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so 
that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do 
him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. Her 
children arise up, and call her blessed ; her husband 
also, and he praiseth her. But the adulteress will 
hunt for the precious life." Prov. vi. 26. 




STORY XVI 



The Eizhth Co7nmandment — " Thou shalt not steal.'' 




DAY or two after Thomson's funeral, Mrs. 
Mills came down from the lady she was at- 
tending to see Mrs. Browne and Mary ; and 
she brought with her, from the lady, a pot of sweet- 
meat for Mrs. Browne. 

The next evening, Mrs. Browne, finding herself a 
little better than usual, took a turn with Mrs. Francis 
in the air, leaving the pot of sweetmeat on the table, 
and a spoon by it. Now Mary was not a child that 
loved sweet things ; for having once, when she was 
sick, taken her medicine in sweetmeat, her mother 
could never after prevail with her to take anything 
of that kind ; Mrs. Browne, therefore, never thought 
of telling her not to touch the sweetmeat, though 
she left her in her berth. On her return, however, 
she found the cover taken off the pot, and the spoon, 
which she had left clean upon the table, all smeared 
with the sweetmeat. 

Mrs. Browne was surprised, and said, "Mary, 
have you been at the sweetmeat?" 

Mary answered, "No, godmother." 

" Tell the truth, if you have," says Mrs. Browne, 
152 



THE CATECHISM. 1 53 

*' and I shall not be angry with you ; only, another 
time, I had rather that you would ask me for any- 
thing, and not take it slyly." 

" Godmother," says Mary, " I tell you the truth. 
I have not taken it, for I don't like it. If I had 
liked it, and seen it on the table, I hope that I should 
not have taken it. But I don't like it, and therefore 
it was no mark of good in me that I did not take it." 

Mrs. Browne could not help smiling at Mary's 
way of speaking ; but she said, " If you have not 
touched it, somebody has. Who is it.^"' 

Mary coloured, but did not answer. Mrs. Browne 
said, " Come, Mary, be honest, and tell me. Have 
you been out of the berth F^ 

Mary. No, indeed, godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. Then you can tell who took the 
sweetmeat ; for somebody has, you know. 

Mary. Yes, godmother, I can tell ; but I do not 
like to tell tales of my neighbours. Pray don't ask 
me. Only have patience with me, and I will try if 
I can persuade the person who did it to confess his 
fault to you ; and then he won't be punished. 

"No," said Mrs. Browne, " not if he comes and 
tells the truth." She now guessed who the thief 
was ; for little Thomas Francis, who was in his 
mother's berth., looked very red, when he heard 
what they were talking about. 

So Mary waited a little ; and when she thought 
Mrs. Browne did not observe her, she slipped away 
to little Thomas, and begged in a whisper that he 
would come and own that he had taken the sweet- 
meat. For Mary was right ; she had not touched 
it. The little boy was the thief. 



154 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

But Thomas being that day in a very naughty 
fit, he would not come to own what he had done 
and to beg pardon. So Mary returned to her god- 
mother, and said, " Godmother, I cannot get the 
person who took the sweetmeat to own it ; I shall, 
therefore, be forced to tell of him, though I did not 
wish it." 

Now Mrs. Francis heard all that passed ; so she 
called Thomas to her, and examining his hands 
and mouth, and finding that they were daubed with 
the sweetmeat, " Now, Thomas," said she, " I am 
sure that you have been the thief, and if you had 
confessed when Mary begged you, I would have for- 
given you ; but since you would not confess, I shall 
take the rod and correct you, that I may save your 
soul from destruction." 

So, without another word, she took up a little 
switch, and, carrying the boy out of hearing, she 
temperately chastised him. After which she brought 
him and tied him to the foot of the bed, saying, 
" There, Thomas, I have not done this because I do 
not love you, but because I do ; and because I would 
use all the means appointed by God for saving my 
child from hell." 

Poor Thomas was very humble, confessing how 
naughty he had been, and praying God to forgive 
him for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. So Mrs. 
Browne, seeing how humble he was, entreated that he 
might be forgiven. Being therefore untied, he went 
and kissed his father, and mother, and Mary, and 
Mrs. Browne, and all were friends again. 

Then says Mrs. Browne, "I think I have a little 
story written upon a matter very like that which has 



THE CATECHISM. 155 

just given us so much pain, I mean upon steal- 
ing ; and Mary shall read it, as we sit here all to- 
gether." 

Mrs. Browne then directed Mary to look in the 
table drawer for a little book with a gilt cover. Mary 
did as she was directed, and found that it was the 
very same book which she had tried to obtain by 
keeping God's commandments, on that memorable 
Sunday when she was tied to the foot of the bed for 
riding on a stick. So she brought it to Mrs. Browne, 
who immediately turning to the story, desired Mary 
to read it aloud : 



THE STORY OF TWO POOR WIDOWS WHO LIVED 
AT CALCUTTA. 

There lived once at Calcutta two poor old white 
women, who were widows. I know not how they 
came to this country, nor how it happened that they 
were so poor ; but so it was. Now there was in 
Calcutta, at that time, a rich soudagur^ who had in 
his house all manner of Europe things, both clothes 
and furniture, with preserved fruits, sweetmeats, toys, 
ornaments, and the like to sell. 

This man had a wife, who was very charitable. 
So when she was told of these two poor women, she 
appointed them a small house near to her own, in 
which were two pleasant rooms, with a little ve7'a7i- 
dah round them ; she gave also to each of them a 
few rupees a month — enough to keep them above 
want, but not enough to buy them any of the luxuries 
or vanities of this world. 

The youngest of these widows, whose name was 



156 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Judith had a Httle son, who lived with her ; and the 
oldest, whose name was Sarah, had a grandson, 
nearly of the age of Judith's son. Now the condi- 
tion of these two women being very equal, as far as 
this world goes, it might naturally be supposed that 
both were equally satisfied. But this was far from 
being the case ; for whereas Sarah and her little 
grandson were exceedingly well contented, Judith 
and her son were very miserable. 

Sarah was contented with the coarsest gown which 
could be had, if it were but clean and tight ; and she 
could thankfully make her dinner on a little fish- 
curry and rice. But Judith was ever coveting the 
fine clothes and dainty dishes of her neighbours, and 
striving to purchase them, as cheap as she could ; 
hence she was ever restless, and constantly craving 
something beyond her reach, not remembering those 
words of Scripture ; " Godliness w^ith contentment 
is great gain. For we brought nothing into this 
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
And having food and raiment, let us be therewith 
content. But they that will be rich, fall into tempta- 
tion and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful 
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
For the love of money is the root of all evil." i Tim. 
vi. 8-10. 

If you wish to know what it was that made these 
two women so difTerent, the one from the other, it 
was nothing more nor less than this — that Sarah 
loved God, and had faith in him, hoping, after death, 
for a better country than this, even a heavenly coun- 
try ; but Judith loved the present world, and cared 
not for God. So, as I said before, Judith was ever 



THE CATECHISM. 1 57 

restless and discontented ; while Sarah was as happy 
as anybody can be in this life. 

Now Judith's son and Sarah's grandson were 
nearly of the same age ; the name of Judith's son 
was Philip, and the other little lad's name was Ralph. 
These boys used to be playmates, while they were 
little ; but the manner of their training was so dif- 
ferent that, when they became older, they could no 
longer find any satisfaction in the company of each 
other. 

Old Sarah used to teach her little grandson that 
he would live upon earth only a very few years ; but 
that the life to come would last for ever and ever, 
without end ; and that it was of very little conse- 
quence whether he was rich and great, or poor and 
despised, in this world, provided he could find the 
right way to be happy in the next world. Then she 
would tell him that the only way to be happy in the 
world to come, was to believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and steadily to follow the directions of his 
holy word. 

Poor old Sarah did not read very well, but she 
could read a little ; and she tried to teach her little 
boy to read also, saying, " Ralph, my child, you 
must learn to read, that you may acquaint yourself 
with the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise 
unto salvation." 

So, when he had learned to read a chapter toler- 
ably well in her old Bible, she sold the best gown 
she had (it was the only Europe gown she had left), 
and bought him a new Bible with the money ; after 
which, she and little Ralph used to read every day 
together, verse by verse ; he in his Bible, and she in 
14 



15S STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

hers. And it was pleasant to see them sitting to- 
gether ; the old woman with her spectacles on, in an 
elbow-chair, and little Ralph on a mat on the floor, 
alternately reading and listening to each other. So 
Ralph early learned the word of God ; and though 
the little lad had his faults like other children, yet 
the fear of God was with him, and he was not hard- 
ened in his sins ; on the contrary, he was always 
sorry when he had done wrong, and knew the way 
to Him who alone was able to pardon and cleanse him 
from his sins. 

But Philip was brought up quite in a difl^erent 
manner. His mother used to tell him that he must 
try to become a great and rich man in the world ; 
inasmuch as the poverty they lived in was shameful 
and despised by all men. For this reason therefore 
she taught him to read ; not that he might thereby 
be enabled to understand God's word, but because, 
she said, without learning, he would never become 
great in the world. She told him also, that she 
hoped, some time or other, to see him riding in his 
coach, and attended by many servants. 

Moreover, she taught him to bow, and scrape, and 
fawn to his betters ; not because it was right to give 
all men the honour due unto them, but that he might, 
by pleasing the great, advance himself in the world. 

And thus were these two boys brought up — Philip 
all for this world, and Ralph especially for the next. 
And now we shall see which way, in the end, was 
most profitable — old Sarah's godliness, or Judith's 
love of the world. 

When these two boys were about eight years of 
age, Mrs. Hawkins, the soudagur's wife, invited 



THE CATECHISM. 1 59 

them both, one New Year's day, to dine at her house. 
Accordingly, they had their best clothes put on, and 
went. She gave them a good tiffing about one 
o'clock, and told them to amuse themselves as they 
liked best till tea-time, in playing about the house ; 
only to be sure that they kept out of mischief. So 
she sat still in her parlour, and the children went to 
play. 

Now, as I said before, in this house there were all 
manner of things for sale. So the children, in their 
play, found their way into the shop, or warehouse, 
where many of the goods were stowed ; and there 
they began, as children will do, to look about them, 
to see what all these things were. And first, they 
found a jar of fine raisins, of which they ate their 
fill without scruple ; then they lighted upon some 
Europe playthings, with which they amused them- 
selves till Philip broke off the head of one of the 
horses, and Ralph broke a whip all to pieces. Next 
Philip found a drawer full of knives and scissors ; 
" Oh ! what numbers of knives and scissors !" said 
Philip. " What would I give for a pair of these 
scissors !" 

" Oh, what would I give for one of these knives !" 
cried Ralph. " My grandmother wanted a little 
knife yesterday to unrip her work, and could not get 
one." 

Says Philip, " Well, do you take a knife, and Pll 
take a pair of scissors ; out of all these great many, 
nobody will miss them." 

" But won't it be wicked,?" said Ralph. "God 
will know it." 

"Never mind," says Philip ;" I'll take a pair of 



l6o STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

scissors, and you may do as 3^011 like. I don't think 
God will see it." So Philip took a pair of scissors, 
and hid them in his hat crown ; and Ralph, being 
over-persuaded, took a knife, and put it in his 
pocket. 

Soon after, they were called to tea ; and when 
they had taken as much as they wished, they were 
sent home, Mrs. Hawkins having kindly given to 
each of them a I'upee. 

While Ralph's grandmother was undressing him 
for bed, the knife fell out of his pocket. The old 
woman picked it up, and holding it close to her eyes, 
for her eyes were very dim, " Oh ! what a pretty 
knife !" said she. " It will be very useful ; for we 
have but one, and that will hardly cut. Did Mrs. Haw- 
kins give it you, my dear.?" 

Ralph made no answer. "Did Mrs. Hawkins 
give it you, child.?" says the old woman again. 

Ralph looked red, and could not speak. " I hope 
you have not stolen it out of the shop — I hope not," 
said the old woman. Ralph still was silent. " Speak 
this moment," says old Sarah. "Do not try to hide 
the truth from me ; for I will go over to Mrs. Haw- 
kins myself, and find it out : so you had best tell me." 

When Ralph found that his grandmother was 
resolved to know the truth, he owned that he had 
stolen the knife. The poor old woman was sadly 
grieved when she found that her boy had been guilty 
of this great wickedness ; and with a sad heart she 
gave him the severest chastisement that he had ever 
received. The next morning, before he was allowed 
to take one mouthful of breakfast, she made him go 
over to Mrs. Hawkins, with the knife in his hand ; 



THE CATECHISM. l6l 

and this was a worse punishment than even the 
wdiipping had been. Moreover, she made him Idarn 
this verse, before she would forgive him : ''Let him 
that stole steal no more : but rather let him labour, 
working with his hands the thing which is good, 
that he may have to give to him that needeth." Eph. 
iv. 28. So Ralph got nothing by his thieving but a 
good whipping and much shame : and from that 
time, through the grace of God, he was never again 
guilty of the like sin. 

And now I will tell you how Judith behaved about 
the scissors. When she was putting by Philip's best 
hat, at night, she found the scissors in the crown of 
it. "Where did you get these pretty scissors .f* Did 
Mrs. Hawkins give them to you?" said she to the 
child. 

'•No, no," says the boy, "I took them out of a 
draw^er in the shop." 

" Did anybody see you .?" said Judith. 

"No: nobody knows but Ralph, and I am sure 
he won't tell of me," replied Philip. 

"But the scissors will be missed," said she. 

"No," said Philip: "I dare say there were an 
hundred in the drawer ; and nobody will know that 
one pair is gone." 

So Judith put the scissors in her pocket, and said 
no more. 

Now, after this, the lads continued to grow in 
years: and Ralph, through reading God's word, 
became every day a better boy. He had not much 
learning as to the things of this world, to be sure ; 
for his grandmother could neither give it him her- 
self, nor pay for his schooling ; but he was taught of 
U * L 



1 63 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

God to fear and love his holy name, and the law of 
God was written upon his heart, which is far better 
than all the learning in the world besides. 

When Ralph was fourteen, his grandmother got 
him a place in a merchant's house. In this situation 
he received only a few rupees a month ; for, not 
being able to write and cast accounts, he could be 
but of little service. However, with part of these 
rupees she hired a man to come every evening to 
teach Ralph to write and cipher, and to improve 
him in reading. And Ralph was so diligent that, 
by the time he was sixteen, he could \vrite a pretty 
hand, and had made some tolerable progress in 
arithmetic. So his master, finding what a diligent 
and honest boy he was, and that he could now keep 
an account, gave him as much as fifty rupees a 
month, a sum quite sufficient for the comfortable 
support both of himself and his grandmother. 

In the mean time, Judith's son went on improving 
himself in reading and writing, for Judith could do 
both herself very well, till he was about fifteen ; 
when she began to think of putting him out to 
some business. But before he obtained any situa- 
tion abroad, he committed a very great crime at 
home ; and I am sorry to say that his mother was 
a partaker with him in it. 

There was, in the same conzpound in which Judith 
and Sarah lived, a little mud house, with one door, 
which you could not go through without stooping. 
In this mud house a fakeer had lived many years ; 
he was now getting an old man, and had subsisted 
all his life by begging. 

Now Philip one day said to his mother, "Mother, 



THE CATECHISM. 163 

I wish I could tell where that old fakee7' keeps his 
rupees; for I'll be bound he has, during his long 
life, gathered a pretty hoard of them." 

"Do you think so?" says Judith. "I wish we 
had some of his hoard. It would do us more good, 
I am sure, than it does him." 

From that time Philip could think of nothing but 
the fakeer's hoard of rupees ; and he watched him 
so closely as, at last, to discover the place in which 
he hid his treasure. It was buried in one corner of 
the mud house, just under the wall ; and Philip 
found this out by peeping through a hole in the 
door at night, and seeing the old man groping in 
that corner. So, one dark night, Philip made a 
hole on the outside, and, grubbing underneath the 
house-wall with his hands, found two bags of 
money, which he carried to his mother, and which 
she hid in the thatch at the top of her room, while 
he went and filled up the hole he had made. And 
behold, all this was done and everything in order 
again before sunrise. 

Now the fakeer knew nothing of his loss till the 
next night; when coming home, and finding his 
rupees taken out of the hole, he made so loud a 
crying and lamentation that the people came run- 
ning from all sides, to see if anybody was murdering 
the old man. But the poor fellow could get no 
comfort from his neighbours ; for some would not 
believe that he had any rupees to lose ; and others 
said, "The old rogue ! if he was so rich as he says, 
why did he go about begging money from us.?" 

The poor plundered medicant was so grieved at 
his loss that he laid himself down in his hut, and 



164 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

would take no food : and some imagined that he 
swallowed poison, as he died shortly after. 

Philip and his mother rejoiced greatly at his 
death, persuading themselves that the robbery of 
which they had been guilty would now never be 
discovered. But God knew it, though man did not. 

Shortly afterward Judith made friends with Mrs. 
Hawkins, and she got Philip a place in a rich 
merchant's house. And Judith, when she sent him 
to his place, fitted him out with the best of clothes, 
which she bought with the poor J'akeer's money : 
by which means Philip made a handsome appear- 
ance in his new place ; and having been taught to 
fawai and bow to his betters, he became so great a 
favourite with his master that, after a while, he 
trusted him even with his money. Judith then left 
the little house she had lived in so long with Sarah, 
and took another near the merchant's residence, 
hiring several servants, buying many fine clothes, 
and hardly deigning to speak to old Sarah when 
she chanced to meet her in the street. 

And thus they went on, for a time, very prosper- 
ously ; but we must not think it strange if, some- 
times, we see the wicked in great prosperity, and 
exalted above their fellows ; for it is written in the 
Bible: "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, 
neither be thou envious against the workers of 
iniquity ; for they shall soon be cut down like the 
grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the 
Lord, and do good : so shalt thou dwell in the land, 
and verily shalt thou be fed." Psalm xxxvii. 1-3. 

Accordingly, for a season, Judith and her son 
went on prosperously. He rode about on his horse 



THE CATECHISM. 165 

as smart as any gentleman ; and she walked through 
the streets in her silk gown. But, ere long, the 
young man became discontented with the hundred 
rupees a month which he received from the mer- 
chant, and began to rob his master of little sums : 
for his master, as I said before, trusted him with 
his money. 

At first, he took only very small sums, such as one 
or two rupees ^t a time ; but he became bolder and 
bolder in his thefts, till, at length, he took so large a 
sum, that his master found it out, took him up, and 
cast him into Calcutta jail. 

When Ralph heard where poor Philip was, he 
went to see him, and tried to comfort him, by telling 
him that, even now, if he would turn to God with 
sincerity of heart, all his sins would be forgiven 
him ; and he might yet be happy, if not in this 
world, in the world to come; "For we are all 
grievous offenders," continued Ralph, "and must be 
content, yea, thankful to be received into heaven as 
pardoned sinners, and not as if we had obtained it 
by our merits." 

But Philip had been brought up in great pride, 
and could not bear to be spoken to in this manner. 
He was quite sulky to Ralph, and as much as said 
he did not want his company. But Ralph went 
again and again to see him, and tried every way to 
bring him to his right mind. 

Now the time drew near when Philip was to be 
brought before the judge, in order to his trial ; but, 
on the preceding night, he was found dead in the 
gaol ; and it is thought that he, like the ^^oox fakeer^ 
had taken something to end his days. So he died 



1 66 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC, 

without repentance toward God, and without faith 
in our Lord Jesus Christ ; and in his death there 
was no hope. 

His mother died, shortly after, of grief, seeing 
that all her proud schemes were at an end, and that 
she had ruined herself and the son she loved. Old 
Sarah nursed her in her last illness, and read and 
prayed with her and for her to the last. On her 
deathbed she confessed how she and her son had 
robbed the o\d.fokeer. 

Honest Ralph went on contented and at ease with 
the little he possessed, to his dying day. He married 
a virtuous wife, and had many children, whom he 
brought up In the fear of God : having always a 
sufficiency of food and raiment, together with a 
comfortable abode for his family ; so that In him 
were strikingly verified the words of the Psalmist : 
"I have been young, and now am old; yet have I 
not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging 
bread." Psalm xxxvil. 25. 

"Oh !" said little Mary, when she had done read- 
ing, " what a pretty story !" 

'"Yes," said Mrs. Browne, "It Is a pretty one ; 
and as you behaved well about little Thomas, not 
being In haste to tell of him and to get him pun- 
ished, I will now give you this book." 

Mary kissed Mrs. Browne, and said, " How good 
you are !" 

And now the coolies came In with the tea ; so 
Francis and his wife, and Mrs. Browne and the chil- 
dren, all drank tea together. After which, Mrs. 
Francis read a chapter ; and, when they had prayed, 
they went to bed. 



STORY XVII 




The Ninth Comtnandment — ^<-Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbour.^'' 

ARLY the next morning, Sergeant Browne, 
having got leave, came down to the hospital, 
to stay with his wife till she should come 
out ; for he was quite tired of being without her. 

Mary was very glad to see her godfather, as she 
always called the sergeant ; and she began chattering 
to him as fast as her little tongue would go, telling 
him everything that had happened, good and bad, 
since their removal into the hospital. All the time 
they were at breakfast she went on, "Godfather, I'll 
tell you this;" and, "Godfather, do but hear that;" 
till the sergeant, at last, said, "Why, Mary, my lass, 
thou hast a tongue ! It will be well for thee, wlien 
grown to woman's estate, if this tongue of thine 
does not get thee into some trouble." 

Mrs. Browne said, "Why, that's what I have 
often told Mary — that her tongue will, some day or 
other, cause her some sorrow. It is a bad custom 
for any one to give into, that of talking too much. 
What does the Scripture say on that subject? — 'In 
the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin ; but 
he that refraineth his lij^s is wise.' " Prov. x. 19. 

167 



1 68 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"Godmother," said Mary, "I will govern my 
tongue. I won't talk so much another time." 

"My lass," said the sergeant, "don't say, ^ I will 
govern my tongue. I will not talk so much another 
time.' Don't you know, that no man has power 
over his tongue? 'The tongue can no man tame.'" 

Mary. What must I do then, godfather.? 

Sei'geant Browne. Why, you must make it a 
matter of prayer to God, that he will tame your 
tongue, and fill your mouth v/ith wisdom. 

Scarcely had the sergeant spoken these words, 
when Mrs. Price, whose bei'th was not far from 
theirs, came over to the foot of Mrs. Browne's bed, 
for she was now so much better as to be able to go 
about. " So, Sergeant Browne," says she, " you are 
come down this morning ; perhaps you can tell us 
what's to be done to Sally Hicks. Will she be 
hanged, think you.?" 

"Sally Hicks!" says the sergeant, "no, sure! 
What of her.?" 

" What," says Mrs. Price, " have not you heard 
what she has done .?" 

" No," said the sergeant and Mrs. Browne, in a 
breath : " we hope no harm." 

" No harm, indeed !" says Mrs. Price. " Nothing 
less than stealing, if there's no harm in that." 

" Dear ! I hope not," says Mrs. Browne, " I knew 
she always loved money too well ; but I never took 
her for a thief, neither. No, nor can I believe it 
scarcely now." 

" But what's the story.?" says the sergeant. 

"The story!" replied Mrs. Price: "why, she 
was over at w^ork at Captain Smith's yesterday, 



THE CATECHISM. 1 69 

and she watches her opportunity, and breaks open 
a box in which she had seen Mrs. Smith put her 
money, and takes out ten golden guineas, which the 
captain's lady brought with her from England, and 
a beautiful shawl worth a hundred ru;pees at least ; 
making off with them as sly as you please. I sup- 
pose she would have Mrs. Smith to believe that 
some of the black folks had stolen them. However, 
Mrs. Smith suspected who the thief was ; and this 
morning, as I heard, a complaint was made to the 
adjutant ; for he sent for her over to his bujtgalow^ 
and put her in confinement — safe enough, no doubt." 

"Why, this is a strange story, Mrs. Price," said 
the sergeant : " at any rate, she was not a very cun- 
ning thief." 

Mrs. Price. Oh ! I'll be bound this is not the 
first time madam has tried her hand at thieving ; for 
she would not have committed so bold a theft at 
first starting. 

" Where did you hear this tale .?" says the sergeant. 

"Oh! if you doubt my word," says Mrs. Price, 
"go and ask Dick Jones, who is now sitting at the 
foot of the cot which was Thomson's ; he told me. 
You'll believe him, perhaps, though you will not 
believe me." 

Sergeant Browne. I have no reason to doubt 
your word ; but, for my own satisfaction, I should 
like to know the truth of this business ; for I have a 
very good-will to poor Hicks ; and, as to his wife, I 
wish her no ill, poor body ! 

"Do," says Mrs. Browne, "do, my dear, go and 
inquire of Dick Jones where he had the tale." 

The sergeant went to the place where Dick Jones 
15 



170 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

was sitting, and little Thomas Francis ran after him. 
"My lad," says he to Dick Jones, "what's this stor}' 
about Hicks' wife? What has she been about?" 

Dick took a chei'oot from his mouth, which he 
was smoking, and answered, "Why, Hicks' wife 
has been robbing the captain's lady of nine golden 
guineas and a shawl." 

Serg'eant Browne. Nine guineas ! W^hy, Mrs. 
Price said ten. 

Dick Jojies. Oh ! that's her mistake. I only 
said nine, I am sure ; and I had it from John 
Roberts. 

Se7'geant Browne. Is he in the hospital ? 

Dick Jones. Yes ; but he will soon be out ; he 
is almost well again. He stands there by that door. 
You may go and ask him, if you have any doubts 
about the matter. 

The sergeant stepped over to John Roberts, and 
put the same question to him which he had done to 
Dick Jones. Now John Roberts was a man who 
never could tell you the least thing in the world 
without swearing to it ; so, when the sergeant asked 
him if he knew what Sally Hicks had been doing, 
he answered, with a half a dozen curses, that she had 
stolen eight golden guineas of the captain's lady, and 
a shawl. 

" Well, but, my lad," says the sergeant, " I only 
asked you a plain question, and wanted only a plain 
answer ; what need of so many oaths in such a 
case .?" 

" Oh ! that's my way," said Roberts, with another 
oath. 

" Then your way is a very bad way," says Ser- 



THE CATECHISM. 171 

geant Browne. " But you say eight guineas, do you? 
From whom had you the story?" 

"I had it from the cook-boy of our mess," an- 
swered John Roberts. 

" Why, Thomas, my boy," said the sergeant, smil- 
ing, and speaking to the child, " we shall have but a 
poor story to carry back to my wife and Mary. We 
lose a guinea every step we go." 

The little boy was much entertained, and pulled 
the sergeant's coat, saying, " Ask the cook-boy who 
told him." 

" Nay, nay, my child," says the sergeant, " we 
will go no further ; having got down from ten 
guineas to eight, we are now come to a poor cook- 
boy ; and such people's words, as we well know, 
are not always to be depended upon. We shall find 
that this stor}^ has no truth at all in it, like many 
other tales that are made out about nothing." 

The sergeant turned to go back to his berth., when, 
just at that moment, whom should he see but James 
Law, with his Bible in his hand, and a few oranges 
which he was bringing to some of the sick men. 
" Oh !" said the sergeant, " there is James Law. He 
lives in the very next berth to Sally Hicks, an^ we 
shall have the truth from him." So the sergeant 
stood still till James Law came up. 

The sergeant then told James Law what he had 
heard of Sally Hicks, and how the guineas had come 
down from ten to eight, and that the story had been 
traced up to the cook-boy. 

James Law heard him out, for he was not a man 
of many words. Then, smiling, he said, " I believe 
I can give you the rights of this wonderful tale, as I 



172 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

know all about it. Salley Hicks, poor body, is too fond 
of money, that we all know ; and I have told her, 
many and many a time, the evil of this. But as to 
her being a thief, I don't know that she is one ; and 
in this matter, which you say there has been such a 
stir about this morning, she is as innocent as that 
little lad there by your side ; for the thing is neither 
more nor less than this : Yesterday Sally Hicks was 
all day at the captain's ; and in the evening she came 
home with something tied up in the corner of an old 
shawl. 'What's that you have got there, Sally?' 
says her husband. 

" ' A half guinea,' says she, ' which Mrs. Smith 
asked me to carry over for her to the adjutant's 
lady.' 

"'What does the adjutant's lady want with it?' 
says her husband. 

" ' Why,' says Sally, ' I believe she wanted a bit 
of Europe gold to make a ring of, and Mrs. Smith 
promised her this half guinea ; but that's no business 
of mine. I'll run over with it as soon as I have 
righted my berth.'' 

"Accordingly, she went over ; but the adjutant's 
lady being out, she brought it back, and locked it in 
her box till this morning, when the adjutant's lady 
sent a sergeant over to her to inquire what she 
wanted with her ; and the sergeant took her over 
with him. This, I imagine, is the bottom of the 
matter. And I reckon," added James Law, " that 
the cook-boy, telling the story in his broken tongue, 
used the word adah^ which, you know, in their lan- 
guage means half; and John Roberts, who never 
looks into the bottom of any matter, perhaps mistook 



THE CATECHISM. 173 

the word for autk^ which, we all know, means eight ; 
and so the story grew. And in like manner has 
many a foolish story grown, through the incorrect- 
ness of speakers or hearers." 

The sergeant smiled, to think what an uproar had 
been made about nothing at all, and said, " I'll go 
back to my berths and set my wife's mind at ease 
about this matter." So he wished James Law a good 
da}', and went back to his wife. 

After Sergeant Browne had related to his wife the 
true story of Mrs. Hicks, he called Mary to him, and 
said, '^ My lass, do you remember what we were 
talking about when Mrs. Price came in with the tale 
of the ten guineas and the Indian shawl .'*" 

Mary. Yes, godfather. You were talking to me 
about the government of the tongue, and telling me 
that I must pray to God to guide my tongue ; for 
that no man could tame his own tongue — it must be 
done by the power God. 

Sergeant Browne. True, my dear. And now, 
my child, I would take occasion to point out to you, 
by what has happened to-day, the mischief which 
people may do by talking at random. Mrs. Hicks' 
character might have been taken away by the foolish 
talk of her neighbours, and about a matter, too, in 
which she was innocent as a babe unborn. There 
are five or six people who have, this day, in this 
room, in the case of Mrs. Hicks, been guilty of 
breaking the ninth commandment. They bore wit- 
ness against her, that she was a thief, and John 
Roberts swore to it. Their testimony was false ; for 
the woman had not taken the things which they as- 
serted she had taken. Thus, you see, that their 
J5 * 



1 74 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

tongues led them to break one of the commandments 
of God ; and no one can tell the mischief that great 
talkers do in the world, both to themselves and 
others. For this reason, my little lass, I am alwa3^s 
telling you to hold your tongue — not to talk so fast, 
and such kind of things ; for it is written in the 
Bible, " Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not 
thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God ; 
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth ; therefore 
let thy words be few." Eccles. v. 2. 

"And now, my lass," added the sergeant, "there 
are five rules or laws I would have you to lay down 
to yourself about the management of the tongue ; and, 
as I advised you before, make it a matter of prayer 
to God, that he will, through his dear Son, give you 
power to keep these rules. 

" (i.) The first is, that you never speak of God, 
or of his book, or of his house, or of his servants, or 
of anything belonging to him, but in words of 
praise ; giving honour to God, and to all that be- 
longs to him. 

" (2.) The second rule I give you is, that you be 
very particular in telling the truth — keep close to the 
truth in every matter, whether it seems, at the time, 
of any consequence or not, for God hateth liars : 
' All liars shall have their part in the lake which 
burneth with fire and brimstone.' Rev. xxi. 8. 
There are many folks in the world who show so 
little regard to truth, that you can never believe any- 
thing they tell you. If they have seen a tall man, 
they will tell you, ' I have just met the tallest man I 
ever saw in my life. He is quite a giant !' If they 
have seen a little man, they will describe him to be 



THE CATECHISM. 175 

no bigger than a child. When they make a report 
of anything pretty, they tell you that it is the most 
beautiful thing that ever was beheld ; and when they 
speak of a person who is not altogether well-look- 
ing, they make him out to be hideous enough to 
frighten a horse ; and thus they deal with every sub- 
ject they touch upon ; so that you cannot give any 
credit to one word they say. Now this is a very bad 
custom. Hold fast to the truth, my dear, in all 
things, even if the question should be about the size 
of a pin. 

" (3.) The third rule I would give you is, never 
be over-forward to talk of yourself, or of your own 
concerns. There are people in the world who talk 
of no one but themselves — ' I do this,' ' I do that,' 
' That's my way,' ' That's my custom,' they say. 
This is a disgusting custom to other people, and it is 
contrary to the directions of the Bible ; for the Bible 
says, ' Let another man praise thee, and not thine 
own mouth ; a stranger, and not thine own lips.' 
Prov. xxvii. 2. And if we consider that we are but 
miserable sinners, and should now be dwelling in 
outer darkness if we had but our deserts, we shall 
not be over-forward to talk of ourselves. And now, 
how many rules have I given you, my lass.^" 

" Three," answered Mary. 

"Well then," says the sergeant, "I have two 
more to give you. 

" (4.) My fourth rule is, that you speak not ill of 
your neighbour. He must be a bad neighbour, in- 
deed, of whom nothing good can be said. But sup- 
pose a person should be so bad, that we can say no 
good of him, without uttering a falsehood ; why 



176 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

then the next best thing is not to speak of him at all. 
Let us see what is said about this in James iv. 11 : 
•• Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that 
speaketh evil of his brother, speaketh evil of the law.' 

" (5.) And now for my last rule, which is of vast 
consequence to such as live, as we do, in barracks ; 
and that is, my lass, never to use any vulgar or filthy 
language. We are often obliged to hear this kind 
of language, to the great sorrow of those among us 
who wish to do better. But when w^e have heard 
an offensive expression, it is by no means necessary 
that we should report or speak it over again. If 
ever therefore you hear a vulgar, bad word, or say- 
ing, turn away your ear, and never repeat it." 

The sergeant then set Mary these verses : " But 
now ye also put off all these ; anger, wrath, malice, 
blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off 
the old man with his deeds." Col. iii. 8, 9. 

Little Mary came to say these verses just before 
the dinner was ready, and she said them without 
missing a word. So the sergeant, his wife, and 
Mary, sat down to some fried eggs and bacon, and a 
country cheese ; and just as they were sitting down, 
James Law passing by, the sergeant invited him to 
come in and partake with them of what they had ; 
for both the sergeant and Mrs. Browne liked James 
Law very much, knowing him to be a godly man, 
and from whose mouth there never proceeded any 
evil communication. 



STORY XVIII. 




The Tenth Coi7ii7tandinent — " Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbour' s hoiise^ thou shalt not covet thy neighbour' s 
wife, nor his 772 an- servant, 7ior his 77iaid-serva7it, 7ior 
his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is hisT 

HE next morning the sergeant called 
Mary to him, to read a chapter in the 
Bible. Mary asked him what chapters 
should read. " Why," says the sergeant, 
" read me the twenty-first chapter of the first of 
Kings." 

So Mary looked out the chapter ; and it contained 
the account of Ahab, king of Israel, coveting the 
vineyard of Naboth ; and of his wife Jezebel causing 
Naboth to be put to death, that her iiusband might 
take possession of his vineyard ; and of the punish- 
ment which God declared, by the mouth of his 
prophet, should be inflicted on them both for this 
sin. 

Now when Mary had finished reading this mem- 
orable story, the sergeant said, ••' What command- 
ment of God did King Ahab break?" 
" The tenth," answered Mary. 
Sergeant Browne. What is the tenth ? 
Mary. ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's 
house, thou shalt not covet thou neighbour's wife, 
M 177 



178 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his 
ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his." 

Sergeant Browne. What did King Ahab's 
covetousness lead to ? 

Mary. It led to the murder of Naboth. 

" B}^ this you see," said the sergeant, " what a 
wicked thing it is to covet or desire the things of 
other people. It begins only with an evil thought, 
but ends very often in deadly hatred and murder, 
with the ruin of families, and all manner of mis- 
chief." 

Mrs. Browne, who was sitting at work by her 
husband, and was hearkening to all he said to Mary, 
observed, " What you are speaking of, my dear, re- 
minds me of the sad history of poor Sergeant Rose 
and his wife." 

" True," says Sergeant Browne ; " do, my dear, 
repeat to Mary the history of Sergeant Rose, while 
you are sitting at your work ; I must be running up 
to the barracks, and shall be back again, I reckon, by 
the time you have done." 

So the sergeant set off, and Mary came and stood 
close to Mrs. Browne while she told her the story. 

" Mary, my dear," said Mrs. Browne, " as my 
husband wishes it, I will tell you this story, hoping 
that it may be a warning and example to you ; not 
that I take any pleasure, I trust, in speaking of the 
faults of my neighbours. These poor people I am 
going to tell you of are now dead and gone. They 
are gone before God, to give an account of all they 
did in the body ; and we ought only to remember 
their faults as a warning to avoid that sin which 
proved their ruin." 



THE CATECHISM. 179 

THE STORY OF SERGEANT ROSE. 

" Some time after we came to this country, my 
husband was made a sergeant. It was at Dinapore, 
and we had a nice corner berth., screened off from the 
rest of the barracks ; so that we were very comfor- 
table. Right opposite to us, and so near that we 
could not but hear most of what they said to each 
other, was one Sergeant Rose and his wife. He had 
been sergeant some years, and was then pay-sergeant 
of the company. 

'' There was not much of the fear of God in this 
couple, as any one might discern in five minutes' 
discourse with them. But still they appeared, for a 
while, as decent and orderly as most of those in the 
barracks ; for the sergeant, at that time, was neither 
a drunkard nor a swearer ; nor was she a woman 
that lived in the practice of any scandalous vice. 
But these people were lovers of the world, more 
than lovers of God ; and all they aimed at was to 
make a show and a figure in the world. Sergeant 
Rose was a man that could not see his neighbours 
have anything good but he would covet it ; and if 
he could not get the thing itself, he would have 
something like it, or still better, if it was to be bad. 

" I remember my husband chanced to light upon 
a very pretty choppei' cot, with curtains, and ever}- 
thing quite complete ; and so cheap that, though it 
was almost too handsome for me, yet he was tempted 
to buy it, and it was brought home and put in the 
berth. As soon as Sergeant Rose saw it carried in, 
he was ready, poor man, to die of vexation ; and he 
set ofi^ forthwith to the mistrys^ and ordered one to 



l8o STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

be made for him and his wife, still larger and hand- 
somer than ours, for which he had to pay twice as 
much as my husband paid for ours. 

"Again, I remember a man of our company had 
bought a chest, clamped with brass : a very hand- 
some piece of goods it was. Sergeant Rose fixed 
his eye on it ; and he could not be easy, poor man, 
till he had it. He many times offered the young 
man who possessed it, as much, or more money than 
it was worth. But the lad did not seem inclined to 
part with it. The sergeant, however, could not rest 
in peace without it : so what did he do, but one 
evening, getting the young man into his berths he 
gave him a good supper and three or four drams ; 
and when he saw that the liquor was in his head, he 
got a promise from him that he would let him have 
his chest the next day for half its real worth ; and 
he and his wife held the young man so close to his 
bargain that he was forced, the next day, to let the 
sergeant have the chest. 

"Poor Mrs. Rose was, in her turn, so over-covet- 
ous of fine clothes that she was never easy. She 
could not see a gown, or a bonnet, or a single article 
of dress that was more than commonly handsome 
belonging to any of our women, but she coveted it ; 
and that with so much eagerness that she would be 
altogether miserable till she got the thing itself, or 
something handsomer of the same kind ; and it is 
painful to think into what sinful actions these covet- 
ous desires would sometimes lead her. About this 
time, there arrived from Europe a detachment of 
men for our regiment, and with it were several 
women : among these there was one Susan Barker, 



THE CATECHISM. i8l 

a private's wife, whose husband was attached to our 
company. This poor body had a little girl about 
five years old. Now it would appear that Barker 
had spent all his bounty in buying clothes for his 
wife : for there was not then a woman in the regi- 
ment who had such a box of clothes as Susan 
Barker — beautiful Europe print gowns, a handsome 
black silk cloak, a velvet bonnet, and everything 
suitable to them. Poor woman ! they were never of 
much use to her ; for I think, after she came to 
Dinapore, she never was out but once, and that was 
to church. In a very short time she was taken ill ; 
and, after a few weeks' sickness, she was carried to 
her grave. 

"The day that poor Susan was at church I hap- 
pened to come out of the church in company with 
Sergeant Rose's wife. She remarked to me, as we 
were coming along, that she had observed Susan's 
cloak and bonnet, as well as her gown, how exceed- 
ingly handsome they were : and that very evening I 
saw her sitting in Susan's berth., talking familiarly 
to her, and hugging and dandling her little girl, just 
as if she had been as dear to her as her life. I re- 
member my husband saying to me, ' Look ye there. 
Rose's wife will get some of that poor body's good 
clothes from her, mind if she does not.' 

" 'My dear,' said I to m}^ husband, 'how can you 
think of such things?' 

"'Mind my words,' said he. 

"The very next day poor Susan was taken with 
that bowel complaint which ended in her death 
three weeks after. Mrs. Rose went to the hospital 
to see her every day while she was there, and 

16 



1 82 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

would not, if she could help it, let anybody else 
come near her : and she pretended so great a regard 
for her that the last desire poor Susan expressed, 
just before her death, was, that Mrs. Rose would 
take charge of her little Peggy. 

"So Mrs. Rose had the child, although Mrs. 
Francis, who was a townswoman of Susan's, would 
have taken it from the moment of its mother's death. 
I was cut to the heart when I saw Mrs. Rose come 
into her berths just after Susan Barker's funeral, 
with little Peggy in her arms. Soon after which 
she brought her to my bei'th^ and began telling me 
all about the mother's death and funeral. 

'•'So,' said I, 'have you got the child, Mrs. Rose.? 
Do you mean to keep it, or will you let Mrs. Francis 
have it?' 

'"Sweet little darling!' said Mrs. Rose, kissing 
the child, 'I would not part with it for all the world, 
little precious creature ! I am sure, if I had a child 
of my own, I could not feel more for it than I do for 
this little love.' Then she kissed it again. 

"As soon as she was gone out of the berths my 
husband whispered to me, 'You'll see that her love 
for the child will last just till she has wheedled poor 
Barker out of all the mother's clothes ; and then it 
will be no more a precious darling.' And my hus- 
band's words came true enough. She pretended great 
love to the child till she got from Barker, one by 
one, the best of his wife's clothes: first, one gown, 
then another, then a petticoat, then the velvet bonnet, 
then a pair of ear-rings, then stockings, then an 
apron, and, last of all, the lace cloak. 

" Several people took the liberty to warn Barker 



THE CATECHISM. 183 

not to be In too great haste to part with these things : 
but Barker was an honest, unsuspecting kind of 
man ; and he used to say, 'Mrs. Rose is so good to 
my little Peggy, that if it would do her any service, 
I would cut my hand off and give it to her.' 

" But poor Barker shortly began to observe a 
difference in Mrs. Rose's behaviour. The very next 
day after he had given her his wife's cloak, and had 
nothing left but a few of her old every-day things, 
he called, as his custom was, to see little Peggy ; 
and he found Mrs. Rose full of complaints against 
the child. 'Peggy has not been a good girl to-day,' 
says Mrs. Rose. ' She has broken me a china cup 
worth eight a72nas. Besides that, she is a very dirty 
child. I cannot keep her clean if you'd give me 
the world. I don't think there is such another dirty 
child in all the barracks.' 

"Barker was surprised to hear such complaints 
against the child ; though he then said nothing. 
But from that time the poor little one could not do 
anything to please her. She found fault with it on 
all occasions. Neither did she feed it in a proper 
manner, but provided for it the worst of victuals, 
and allowed the men to give it as much liquor as 
they would. 

"About that time, the regiment was ordered away 
in a hurry, on some duty, I forget what ; and the 
women were left in Dinapore barracks. Then, in- 
deed, Mrs. Rose began to use the poor child sadly, 
so that it fell away from day to day ; but no one had 
authority to take it from her, till the father came 
back. 

"When poor Barker came home, we told him 



184 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

how his httle one had been used, considering it our 
duty so to do ; and he removed it immediately to 
Mrs. Francis, where the poor little girl was very 
tenderly treated. But the ill usage and bad living to 
which the child had been accustomed at Mrs. Rose's 
had brought on it the same complaint of which its 
mother died, the bowel complaint ; from the fatal 
effects of which neither the doctor's skill nor Mrs. 
Francis' care could preserve her : for, after lingering 
a while, she died, just a year and half after her 
mother, and w^as buried in the same grave. 

"After this sad affair, instead of getting less greedy 
of other folks' things, and less under the influence of 
strife and covetousness. Mrs. Rose became, I think, 
more than ever addicted to these evil habits. About 
that time, we moved from Dinapore to Berhampore, 
and just then Sergeant James was made sergeant- 
major. Mrs. James after this, to be sure, could 
afford man}^ things which Mrs. Rose could not — the 
one being sergeant-major's wife, and the other pay- 
sergeant's only. But Mrs. Rose had such an envious 
spirit, that she must have the same as Mrs. James 
had, cost what it would ; and her husband encour- 
aged her in this temper, so that if Mrs. James 
bought herself a new bonnet or gown, next week 
you would be sure to see Mrs. Rose in one of the 
same, if not a handsomer. And to supjDort all this 
expense, what was to be done but to take all possi- 
ble advantage of the poor men in the company, 
more especially when they were drunk, cheating and 
overreaching them in all manner of ways. 

"My husband warned Rose many times, telling 
him, that if his overbearing and cheating ways were 



THE CATECHISM. 185 

ever to reach the captain's ears he would certainly 
be broke. Moreover, he told him that, supposing 
his unjust actions should never be made known to 
the officers, yet that God knew^ all his most secret 
actions, and would bring him to account for them, 
if not in this world, yet surely in the next : for thus 
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, 'Execute true 
judgment, and show mercy, and compassion every 
man to his brother : and oppress not the widow, nor 
the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor ; and let 
none of you imagine evil against his brother in your 
heart.' Zech. vii. 9, 10. 

" My husband also showed Sergeant Rose these 
words of our blessed Lord : 'And he said unto them, 
Take heed, and beware of covetousness ; for a man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth.' Luke xii. 15. 

" But my husband's words had no manner of effect 
on Rose or his wife. The}- w^ent on gathering to- 
gether money, and fine clothes, and goods, till at 
length some of the unjust dealings of Rose toward 
the men w^ere reported to the captain, and the thing 
being proved against him, he was broke. 

" Poor Rose was so much hurt and grieved at 
being reduced to a private from a sergeant, that he 
never looked up after. From that time he took to 
drinking, so that he became good for nothing in the 
world ; he and his wife leading a most miserable life 
together — he blaming, her for his ruin, and she blam- 
ing him. ' It was your covetousness that brought 
me to ruin,' he would say ; and she would answer 
in the same manner ; so that they became the most 
unhappy couple in all the barracks, he constantly 

16 * 



1 86 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

drunk, and she was very little better. Now all the 
fine clothes and handsome things they had got to- 
gether did them no manner of service ; and their end 
was exceedingl}^ distressing, the death of each of 
them being brought on by drinking ; for they used to 
drink, as I said before, to drive care away. She died 
first, and in a very frightful manner, all her com- 
plaint lying in her head, so that she raved like a mad 
^voman ; and all her talk on her deathbed w^as about 
poor little Peggy Barker, often crying out, ' God doth 
execute the judgment of the fatherless — God doth ex- 
ecute the judgment of the fatherless,' which is part 
of a verse in the Bible, Deut. x. i8. After her death, 
he drank harder than ever ; selling, little by little 
all his wife's clothes, to keep himself in liquor. He 
even parted wnth the handsome cloak which his 
wife had got from Susan Barker, to a black man, for 
two case-bottles of brandy ; so that his costly stores 
never did him or any of his any good ; and he died, 
poor fellow, not worth a pice beyond what would 
serve to put him in the ground. 

" Thus you see, my dear, the folly, the miser}-, and 
the wickedness of coveting and desiring other peo- 
ple's things, and letting one's eyes go a roving after 
fine clothes and furniture ; for' when we go out of 
the world we can carry nothing with us, but must go 
out naked as we came in." 

Then Mrs. Browne made Mary learn these verses : 
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
break through and steal ; but lay up 'for yourselves 
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 



THE CATECHISM, 187 

steal ; for where treasure is, there will your heart be 
also." Matt. vi. 19-21. 

When Mary had learned these verses, Mrs. Browne 
asked her a few questions, to know if she understood 
what she had learned. 

Mrs, Browne, What is signified by a treasure, 
Mary ? 

Mary, A treasure signifies a great many rich 
and good things put together. 

Mrs. Browne. Where must we gather our good 
things together ? 

Mary. In heaven. 

Mrs, Browne, Why not in this world.? 

Mary. Because moth or rust may consume our 
good things, or thieves may take them away. 

Mrs. Browne. And are there no thieves in 
heaven ? 

Mary. No. 

Mrs, Browne, But how can we go up to heaven, 
to lay up good things for ourselves there } 

Mary. We cannot go up to heaven till after we 
die ; but if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
love him, he will prepare good things for us against 
we die. 

Mrs. Browne, What will he prepare for you if 
you love him } 

Mary, A beautiful mansion in his Father's house. 

Mrs. Browne. And what else ? 

Mary. A crown of glory and a robe of right- 
eousness. 

Airs. Brow7ie. And what besides ? 

Mary. The fruit of the tree of life to eat, and 
living water to drink. 



lS8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

Mrs. Bt'owne. And will he never take those 
things from us again ? 

Mary. No, never, never. 

Mrs. Browne. Then pray to God, my dear child, 
that he will, for his dear Son's sake, take covetous- 
ness out of your heart, and so entirely change your 
nature that you may desire a treasure in heaven, 
rather than in this world. 

By this time, the sergeant being returned from the 
barracks, dinner was brought in. 




STORY XIX. 

Showing that, at the hour of death, we must have some- 
thing else to trust to than our own obedience to the 
Commandments. 




FEW days before Mrs. Browne was able to 
leave the hospital, one Robert Berry, a pri- 
vate of the grenadier company, was brought 
in, in a doolie.^ and put into the berth which Mrs. 
Price had occupied, who went out the day after 
Sergeant Browne came down from the barracks. 
Robert Berry had been in a poor way for some years ; 
his disease was what the country-people in England 
call a waste ; though he had a good appetite, yet his 
victuals seemed to do him no good. Sometimes he 
would get a little better, and then become worse 
again ; one week he was able to do his duty, and the 
next, perhaps, he was in the hospital ; and so he lin- 
gered on, from time to time. His disease, however, 
had now gained such ground upon him that it was 
plain enough to all about him that he never would 
go out of the hospital again, but as a corpse ; yet the 
poor man himself, having been so long ill, had no 
more thought of death now than at any other period 
of his sickness. 

189 



190 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

The character which Robert Berry bore in the 
company was that' of a good sort of man, although 
he did not deserve it, for his goodness was all outside 
show. He had always been clean, and, wdien able, 
regular in his duty ; he was a man of few words, 
and so never found in broils and uproars ; and when 
he got drunk, which he often did, he took care that 
it should not be at times when he was liable to be 
seen by his officers, or when he was for any duty ; 
but he would take a cup, and that a pretty large one, 
just as he was going to bed, or when he was well 
assured that the effect of the liquor would be gone 
off before he was called for ; so that all the time he 
was a soldier, which was ten years or more, he never 
got into a scrape about drinking. When he did 
speak, he would mix oaths and curses with his dis- 
course, like other men ; but, as I said before, being 
no great talker, he kept out of many troubles which 
others fell into. As to religion, he never thought 
about it ; he went to church when his compan}^ went, 
but never at any other time ; and he used to glory in 
saying, that, for his part, he was no Methodist, 
though, he doubted not, he was, at bottom, as good 
as any of them. 

This was the character of poor Robert Berry ; and 
I fear there are many men in every regiment like 
him, who, w^hile they keep fair with their officers, 
care little about pleasing God. 

The day he came into hospital, Mrs. Browne said 
to her husband, " Robert Berry looks very ill. I 
think he cannot last many days. Do you imagine 
that he has any thought of preparing for death.? — I 



THE CATECHISM. 1 91 

wish, my dear, you would talk to him upon the 
subject." 

Sergeant Browne answered, " I'll tell you what I 
will do. I will go up to the barracks, and fetch 
James Law, and get him to open the matter to 
Berry ; James Law has been more used to deal with 
sick and dying folks than I have." 

Sergeant Browne was as good as his word. He 
brought James Law down from the barracks that 
evening; and, after taking a cup of tea with Mrs. 
Browne, they went over together. Sergeant Browne 
and James Law, to Berry's berth. The poor man 
was lying on his bed, unable to speak from pain and 
restlessness — weary of his own thoughts, and glad 
of any company to pass away the time. So he was 
pleased to see them, and asked them to sit down by 
him. "Well, my friend," says James Law, "how 
do you find yourself?" 

Robe7't Berry. Full of pain, full of pain — weary 
of my life, quite weary of my life. 

" Well," says James Law, " we have one great 
comfort when we are weary of this life — we have a 
better life to look to. The way to heaven is, thank 
God, open to all ; we have only to knock, and the 
door to everlasting happiness will not be held shut 
against us." 

Robert Berry stared, not knowing what James Law 
meant by knocking at the door to everlasting happi- 
ness ; and though he said he was weary of his life, 
he did not mean that he wished to die, for he had no 
manner of wish to leave this world. 

James Law then spoke more plainly, and said, 
" My friend, this weariness of life, and these pains 



192 ST OB IBS ILLUSTRATING 

of a sick bed, are sent to us by our heavenly Father, 
in kindness, to warn us of our approaching depar- 
ture. While we are in health, and things go well 
with us, we are too apt to forget that this world is 
not our home ; and so we neglect to make prepar- 
ations for our march to the next." 

Robert Berr}-, hearing James Law speak in this 
manner, raised himself up in his bed, his poor yel- 
low face becoming red with passion, " Why," said 
he, "you don't think I am likely to die this bout, do 
you.?" 

"I do," sa^'s James Law, gravely, "and so does 
every one else." 

Robert Berry swore at him, saying, " So you came 
here just to tell me I am a dead man, did you.? I 
wish you had lost the use of your tongue before you 
came hither on such an errand." The poor man 
used several other shocking expressions in his anger 
against James Law ; after which, being overcome 
wnth weakness, he fell back on his pillow and was 
silent. 

Then Sergeant Browne put in a word or tvvo of 
kindness, saying that they did not come to frighten 
him, but as friends, to warn him of his danger. 
" My lad," says the sergeant, "you will not die the 
sooner for our telling you that you are in some dan- 
ger ; a soldier should be ready to march at all times, 
whether the route be come or not. All we would 
persuade you to is, to look a little into your affairs, 
and to see that all is in order for the expedition which 
you may, perhaps, be shortly called upon to under- 
take. Now, my lad, you know that there are but 
two countries to which a man can be ordered to 



THE CATECHISM. 193 

march, in the life to come ; the one is a most exceed- 
ingly beautiful and desirable country, where we shall 
be under the command of a Captain who scrupled 
not to lay down his life for his followers ; and the 
other is an abode of unutterable sorrow, a lake of 
everlasting fire, where Satan will be our captain, and 
his cursed angels our comrades. Now the matter 
which we would have you to consider is this : sup- 
pose that God should this night require your soul of 
you, to which of these places do you think you would 
be sent by the great Judge ?" 

"To which?" replied Berry, " to which? Why, 
I hope I should go to heaven." 

"And we hope so, too," said James Law ; " but 
as this is a matter of much consequence — as your 
eternal happiness or eternal misery depends upon 
your not being mistaken in this point, we come to 
advise you, while God, in mercy, spares your life, to 
consider your ways ; and, if you have not done it 
already, to turn to him who alone can save 3'ou. 
You say you hope that you shall go to heaven ; upon 
what ground do you rest your hope ?" 

" Upon what do I rest my hope, say you? I don't 
rightly understand you," answered Robert Berry. 

yames Law. Why, we wish to know, if you have 
ever considered for what reason God should give you 
the kingdom of heaven ? Have you deserved such 
an exceeding great reward by any of your own w^orks ; 
or do you think that God will give you eternal hap- 
piness for the sake of any other person? 

Robert Berry. Oh ! now I understand you. 
You want to know whether I think myself good 
enough to go to heaven. Why, as to that, I believe 
17 N 



194 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

I am as deserving as most other men ; and, perhaps, 
am better than some who pretend to be very re- 
ligious. 

"But," said James Law^, "you vs^ill not be asked 
at the day of judgment, whether you were better 
than such a man, or such a man — every man will be 
judged according to his own works, as St. John 
says : ' And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God ; and the books were opened ; and 
another book was opened, which is the book of life ; 
and the dead were judged out of those things which 
were written in the books, according to their works. 
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and 
death and hell delivered up the dead which were in 
them ; and they were judged every man according 
to their works.' Rev. xx. 12, 13. Now the question 
is, not whether you are better than I am, or whether 
I am better than you are ; but whether your works, 
the things which are written concerning you in those 
books, are such as will stand the trial ?" 

Robert Berry. I don't know why they should 
not — I have neither been a thief nor a murderer. 

y antes Law. Well, suppose you have not broken 
those two particular commandments relating to mur- 
der and stealing (which, I am sure, is more than I 
can say), yet are there no other commandments of 
God which you have broken ? Have you lived all 
your life without sin ? Is there nothing written 
against you in the book of remembrance ? 

Robert Berry. Why, it would be much to say 
that I never have committed any sin ; but I am sure 
I have led a very regular life ; I was never seen 
drunk by any of our officers ; I was always clean on 



THE CATECHISM, 195 

parade and exact in ray duty, and paid every man 
his due; and what more would you have? I'll tell 
you what ; I think, if I am sent to hell, there won't 
be many of our company saved. 

Jajnes Law. That is no concern of yours, my 
lad ; let every one look to himself. The question is, 
are your works such as will stand the trial ? — have 
you kept God's commandments, or broken them? 
God is a just Judge, strictly just ; his law is pure ; he 
never suffers it to be broken, even in the smallest 
point, without demanding satisfaction. From the 
beginning of the w^orld, from the time of Abel, 
till the time when the Lord made satisfaction for 
the sins of the world upon the cross, it has been 
acknowledged by all believers that sin cannot 
be forgiven "without shedding of blood." Heb. 
ix. 22. 

Robert Berry. I have had my little faults like 
other men, to be sure ; but as to having been much 
in the practice of breaking God's commandments, I 
don't know that I have. 

Then said Sergeant Browne, "Just run over the 
ten commandments in your mind, and question your- 
self, as you go along, how you have kept each of 
them in particular. I remember, when I was a 
youngster, I began a custom, when on sentry at 
night, of repeating- the ten commandments, and ex- 
amining myself by them. I was taught this by Ser- 
geant Cowper, a good old man, who is now, I trust, 
with God." 

Sergeant Browne and James Law were silent for 
some minutes, as if to give Berry time for self-recol- 
lection. At length James Law said, " Well, Berry, 



196 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

in examining yourself by God's law, how do you 
come off?" 

Robert Berry. Come off! Why, I'll tell you 
what, I think you have a mind to put me quite out 
of conceit with myself. What if I have broken 
one or two of God's laws, in the course of nine and 
Wenty years ; is that a reason why I am to be sent 
to hell for ever? 

yames Law. Supposing, as you say, that you 
have broken the laws of God only a few times in 
your life, yet you will be condemned even for those 
few offences ; for the law of God, as I said before, 
is so holy and so just that it must not be broken 
with impunity. It is written, "Whosoever shall 
keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he 
is guilty of all. For he that said. Do not commit 
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou com- 
mit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a 
transgressor of the law." James ii. 10, 11. 

Sergeant Browne. But what man can say he 
has broken God's law only a few times in his life.'' 
Take only the third commandment, which forbids 
us to take the name of God in vain — can any man 
recount how often he has broken that command- 
ment.^ Can any man say that he has not uttered the 
holy name of God in a vain and thoughtless manner 
a thousand and a thousand times in his life .^^ Then 
there is the fourth commandment ; how often and 
often do we transgress that.^ And I verily believe 
that there is scarcely a man on earth — ay, and pick 
from the very best — who does not continually break 
the ninth and tenth. 

James Law, You may, in this manner, mention 



THE CATECHISM. 197 

every commandment. But, instead of inquiring how 
often the commandments of God are broken ; we 
should rather inquire, who is able to keep any of 
them ? 

Robert Bei^ry. At this rate, you are going on to 
damn all mankind. 

Then said James Law, " No man ever can be saved 
by his own good works. There is not a man on earth 
that can stand the trial. The best man that ever 
breathed, if tried by the pure law of God, must be 
condemned to hell ; for there is none good, no, not 
one. We are all filthy, all abominable, all unclean, 
all fit for hell-fire." 

Robert Berry. And is this what you are come 
to tell me ? If this is all the comfort you Method- 
ists have to give, I am sure you had best keep 
away. 

James Law. What we have been striving at is 
to convince you, Berry, that you, and we, and all 
men, are sinners, having no power of ourselves to 
save ourselves ; and thus to lead you to one who can 
save you, even the Lord Jesus Christ. 

-^James Law then went on to tell Robert Berry 
how God the Son came down from heaven, took 
upon him the nature of man, and died for us upon 
the cross ; that we, through faith in his name, might 
be washed from our sins in his blood, and being 
clothed with the garment of his righteousness, might 
be received into everlasting habitations. And he 
finished by entreating Berry not to trust to his own 
works, but to fly to the Lord Jesus Christ for salva- 
tion. 

Berry made no answer to all this ; but when Law 
17 * 



198 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

ceased speaking, he said, "Well, now you had best 
be going ; for I want to sleep." 

So the sergeant went back to his berth, and James 
Law to the barracks : and the sergeant told his wife 
that he greatly feared they should lose their labour, 
poor Berry appearing to be obstinately sullen. 

"Never fear," said Mrs. Browne: "it will be a 
good work if you should be enabled, by God's grace, 
to say a word in season to the poor dying man. 
Remember, that 'he which converteth a sinner from 
the error of his way shall save a soul from death, 
and shall hide a multitude of sins.'" James v. 20. 

"The work must be of God," said the sergeant. 

" True," said Mrs. Browne ; " but sometimes God 
condescends to employ very humble instruments in 
the performance of great works." So she encour- 
aged him to go on ; and accordingly he and James 
Law went again the next day to Berry's berth. 

But Berry was determined, for that time, to have 
no more of their preaching, as he called it ; and for 
the purpose of silencing them, should they visit him 
again, he got John Roberts to come and sit in his 
berth. As soon, therefore, as James Law began to 
speak upon religion, John Roberts also began to 
banter, and laugh, and talk in such a manner, that 
James Law^ and Sergeant Browne thought it best to 
retire, and let Berry alone for a while. 

For a day or two Berry's health remained much 
in the same state ; and, finding that he was not 
getting worse, he began to flatter himself that what 
James Law had said to him about his being likely 
soon to die had no truth in it. And now, imagining 
death at a distance, he put ofl" all uneasy thoughts 



THE CATECHISM. 199 

about the day of judgment, saying to himself, "I 
am as good as other men — I shall do as well as they, 
in spite of what those canting Methodists say." 
So he went on, for three days after he came into the 
hospital, putting off all thought about the world to 
come ; talking with one idle body or another, who 
chanced to come into his berth; and crying. Peace, 
peace, to his soul, when there was no peace. Jer. 
vi. 14. 

But it happened the third night, just about mid- 
night, when all was quiet in the hospital, that poor 
Robert Berry was taken with a convulsive fit, in 
which he might have died, had not Sergeant Browne, 
hearing him groan, got up to his help. He, and the 
hospital-sergeant, and Mrs. Francis, who was a nice 
woman about the sick as could be, did all they could 
for him ; so that, toward sunrise, the fit left him, 
and he began to revixe: but, poor man, had you 
seen him, you would have taken him for a corpse. 
"Oh, Sergeant Browne! Sergeant Browne!" said 
he, when he was able to speak, "are you come to 
me again.? Oh! that I had minded your words 
before : but now, I am afraid, there is no hope for 
me. I thought, just now, I was already dead, and 
standing before the Judge, loaded with my sins, 
which were ready to sink me into hell. Oh, Serge- 
ant Browne, I know now that I have been a sinner — 
that I have broken God's commandments a thou- 
sand and a thousand times. I have lived in the 
contempt of God all my life — I have mocked at his 
servants, and called them names — I have despised 
his blessed book, his holy name and his laws. 
Now death is come near to me, I see things in quite 



200 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

a different light from that in which they appeared to 
me even three days ago. Oh ! what shall I do to 
be saved? What shall I do to be saved?" Then the 
poor man broke out into crying like a young child. 

"Are you willing, my friend," says Sergeant 
Browne, ''to give up all trust in yourself, and to 
throw" yourself as a poor miserable condemned 
sinner, at the foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus 
Christ?" 

"Indeed, indeed, I am!" said poor Berry, "very 
ready, and very willing. I have no hope, but from 
the mercy of God. I dare not stand a trial." 

"What do you mean by the mercy of God?" said 
the sergeant. 

"Mean!" replied Berry; "w^hy, that I hope he 
w^ill forgive me, if I own my sins to him, and am 
very sorry, and not proud and self-presuming, as I 
was the other day." 

"Take care," says Sergeant Browne, "that you 
do not take this matter by the wrong handle. God, 
I tell you plainly, will not forgive you for your 
repentance and humility, be they ever so great. 
They who have studied the Bible know this thing 
better than you do your A, B, C, that God the 
Father never does, and never can forgive sins, with- 
out a sufficient satisfaction ; and this satisfaction 
consists in nothing less than the blood of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is one w^ith God, 
and equal with the Father. God the Son descended 
from heaven, took upon him the body of a man, and 
in that body fulfilled all the laws of his Father. He 
was sacrificed for us upon the cross, that we, through 
faith in him, might receive pardon for our sins. 



THE CATECHISM. 20I 

" We have no righteousness in ourselves ; but if 
we love our Saviour, v\^e shall receive the reward of 
his righteousness. It is said in the Bible, that his 
righteousness will be put upon us as a garment, to 
hide our sinfulness, according as it is written: 'I 
will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joy- 
ful in my God : for he hath clothed me with the 
garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the 
robe of righteousness.' Isaiah Ixi. lo. This right- 
eousness of Christ is the uniform of the saints : a 
man might as well come on parade without his 
accoutrements, as a sinner to appear before God 
without this garment of salvation. 

"Now, my poor lad," added the sergeant, seeing 
Berry much troubled, "you have nothing to do, but 
to apply unto the Lord after this manner — confessing 
that you are nothing in yourself but a poor miserable 
wretch, your very repentance requiring to be re- 
pented of; and beseeching him to pardon you for his 
dear Son's sake, and to give you his righteousness, 
even the righteousness of Christ." 

Berry begged the sergeant to put these words into 
the form of a prayer for him. So the sergeant knelt 
down by the side of Berry's cot ; and Berry joined 
heartily in the prayer, which he well remembered, 
for every word of it is to be found in the dear old 
Prayer-Book. By this time, Mrs. Francis had got a 
little sago and wine ready for the poor man, after 
taking which, he fell asleep ; and James Law coming 
down, the sergeant left him with Berry, while he 
went up to fetch the Reverend Mr. King, who was 
at that time the clergyman of this station, and as 
worthy a man as ever lived. 



202 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Berry in the mean time, had a comfortable sleep, 
and was pretty easy on Mr. King's arrival ; so that 
he was able to pay much attention to what he said. 
It would take more time than I have to spare, to 
repeat all that Mr. King said to Robert Berry on 
this occasion ; but he went to work much after the 
same manner w^ith him as James Law and the ser- 
geant had done ; for true Christians, whether they be 
high or low, learned or unlearned, have all one faith, 
and one way of thinking concerning matters of 
salvation ; only, being a man of more knowledge 
and experience than they possessed, he put the 
matter in a clearer light than they could possibly do. 
The first thing Mr. King did was to bring Berry to 
confess that he was a poor miserable sinner ; which 
he was now, poor man, ready enough to do ; and 
from that Mr. King led him on to the knowledge of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, w^io is able to save " them to 
the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he 
ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. 
vii. 25. 

Robert Berry, by the mercy of God, lived nearl}^ a 
week, during which time Mr. King visited him 
every day ; and Sergeant Browne and James Law, 
first one and then the other, were with him night 
and day, reading, talking and praying with him, as 
often as he could bear it. Mr. King finally gave 
him the Holy Communion, these good men partak- 
ing with him of that comfortable sacrament. As to 
John Roberts, though he had been an old comrade 
of Berry's, he never came near him for six days be- 
fore he died ; "For," said he, with an oath, "those 
Methodists have got hold of Robert Berry, so he 



THE CATECHISM. 203 

must be content to do without my company, for I'll 
never set foot where they are, if I can help it." 
And it was a great blessing to poor Berry that John 
Roberts was of this mind, since it allowed him to 
die in peace, disturbed no more with the oaths and 
curses of so hardened a sinner. 

Now there was much hope in the death of poor 
Berry ; for although he did not die rejoicing, as 
some holy men have done after serving God for 
many years ; yet he died very humbly, calling him- 
self a miserable sinner, and saying, again and again, 
that he had no hope but in the blood of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Sergeant Browne and James Law 
were with him at the hour of his death. He thanked 
them, just before he became speechless, for their 
great kindness to him in bringing him to the know- 
ledge of his Redeemer ; and once he said, " I hope 
to meet you in heaven, and thank you there better 
than I can here." 

He begged that a certain hymn might be sung at 
his funeral, and his request was granted. The hymn 
was this : 



A HYMN BY THE POET COWPER. 

There is a fountain filled with blood 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 

And sinners, plung'd beneath that flood, 
Lose all their guilty stains. 

The dying thief rejoiced to see 

That fountain in his day; 
And there may I, as vile as he. 

Wash all my sins away. 



204 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood 

Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransom'd Church of God 

Be saved, to sin no more. 

E'er since, bj faith, I saw the stream 

Thy flow'ing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 

And shall be till I die. 

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, 

I'll sing thy power to save. 
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue 

Lies silent in the grave. 







STORY XX, 



" Q- What dost thou learn by these commandmeitts ? 
" ^ . / lear7i two things : my duty toward God, and my 
duty toward my neighbour?'' 




FEW days after the death of Robert Berry, 
Mrs. Browne came out of the hospital, and 
Mrs. Mills being come home, Mary re- 
turned to sleep at her mother's ; but scarcely a day 
passed in which she did not come over to see her 
godmother. 

On the Sunday following the return of Mrs. 
Browne and Mrs. Mills to the barracks, Mr. King 
gave notice that he should publicly catechise all the 
children in the place on the next Friday evening. 
What a bustle was there upon this occasion among 
the children in the barracks, from the Sunday to the 
Friday, conning over the Catechism ! and as to 
Mary, she scarcely ever had her Bible and Cate- 
chism out of her hand. Well, at last, Friday even- 
ing came : the children were all neatly dressed, to 
go up to the church ; and many of their fathers and 
mothers went too, as the catechising did not begin 
till after parade. 

The church was lighted up, and Mr. King was 
standing at a small table, with two wax lights and 

18 205 



2o6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

three most beautiful Bibles upon the table before 
him : one of these Bibles was bound in purple 
morocco leather, richly gilt ; another in red leather, 
gilt in the same manner ; and the third equally 
ornamented, in green. He ordered that the children 
should be placed in a half circle before him, and 
the parents stood behind the children. Before Mr. 
King began to catechise the children, he spoke to 
them after this manner: "My little children, you 
see these three beautiful Bibles : it is my intention 
to give one of these to each of those three children 
who may answer best the questions which I shall 
now put to you relative to the Catechism — not to 
those who merely repeat the words of the Catechism 
best, but to those who shall prove, by their answers, 
that they best know the meaning of it ; for if we 
learn words without knowing or thinking what 
those words mean, we may as well learn words in 
an unknown tongue ; and those people who read 
the Bible, or any other godly book, without endea- 
vouring to understand the things written therein, 
might just as well not read at all." 

When Mr. King had said these w^ords, he began 
the Church Catechism, and went through it with 
the children, putting no question to them except 
such as were in the book ; and the children, so far, 
answered very well. Nelly Price was, I think, 
the only one belonging- to the barracks that made 
any mistake ; and, I am sorry to say, she made 
several. 

But now the hardest part was to come. Mr. King 
was to examine whether they had merely learned to 
repeat the answers which they had then delivered ; 



THE CATECHISM. 207 

or whether they had any acquaintance with the real 
import of those answers. That part of the Church 
Catechism in which Mr. King thought proper to ex- 
amine them was : Our duty toward God, and our 
duty toward our neighbour. 

And first, he asked the little girl who stood at his 
right hand (Sally Smith, 1 think it was, one Cor- 
poral Smith's daughter) what she had learned from 
the ten commandments. 

She thought a moment ; at last she said, " I learn 
two things — my duty toward God, and my duty 
toward my neighbour." 

The next question fell to Mary : " Who is the true 
God.?" 

Mary answered, " He who sent his Son into the 
world to die for sinners." 

Mr. King was pleased, and thought to himself, 
" Come, we shall do very well ; I must be looking 
out for some more Bibles, I believe." The next 
question was, " And v^ho is your neighbour?" 

This question fell to Private Jones' son, little Dicky 
Jones: "My neighbour?" says the boy — " one John 
Willis." That was the man who had the next berth 
to his father's. 

Mr. King looked grave, and the children were 
ready to laugh. So the question was passed on. 
But although the children were so ready to laugh at 
Dicky Jones, the question was put to five more be- 
fore it was answered ; at last, little Thomas Francis 
said, " All men are my neighbours." So Thomas 
Francis was put between Mary and Dicky. 

The next question fell to one of the James'. James 
as I said before, was sergeant-major of that regiment, 



2o8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

and had three children living — Charlotte, who was 
nearly fifteen years of age ; William, who was eleven ; 
and Kitty, who was just the age of Mary Mills. 
These three children were ranged together ; and 
Charlotte, standing first, Mr. King asked her, " How 
many Gods are there ?'* 

She answered, " One God ; but in the Godhead 
there are three persons — the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost." 

Not to make my story too long, I must tell you 
that Sally Smith lost her place the next time the 
question went round ; and from that time till the 
catechising was over, not one child answered a ques- 
tion but Mary Mills, the sergeant-major's three chil- 
dren, and little Thomas Francis. And now I will 
repeat Mr. King's questions, together with the an- 
swers of these children, that every youthful reader 
of this relation may be able to judge whether, if he' 
had been there, he would have stood any chance of 
obtaining one of those beautiful Bibles. 

][Ir. King. Why must we believe in God? 

Mary. " Without faith it is impossible to please 
God ; for he that cometh to God must believe that 
he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- 
gently seek him." Heb. xi. 6. 

Mr. King. Why must we fear God } 

Thomas Francis. " Fear not them which kill 
the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather 
fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell." Matt. x. 28. 

Mr. King. Why should we love God ? 

Charlotte James. " We love God, because he 
first loved us." i John iv. 19. 



THE CATECHISM. 209 

Mr, King. What was the greatest proof of love 
which God ever showed the world? 

William Janies. " God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." John iii. 16. 

Mr. King. How much ought we to love God? 

Kitty yafnes. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all th}'^ heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy mind." Matt. xxii. 37. 

Mr. King. Why must we worship God? 

Mary. "It is written. Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Matt, 
iv. 10. 

The next question came round again to Mary, as 
none of the others could answer it. 

Mr. King. How should we worship God the 
Father ? 

Mary. In the name of God the Son ; for the Lord 
Jesus Christ says, " I am the way, the truth, and the 
life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
John xiv. 6. 

Mr. King. Why must v^e give thanks to God ? 

Thomas Francis could not answer this, but Char- 
lotte James answered it: "Be careful for nothing; 
but in everything by prayer and supplication, with 
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto 
God." Philippians iv. 6. 

Mr. King. Why is it good to trust in the Lord? 

One of the children answ^ered, "Many sorrows 
shall be to the wicked ; but he that trusteth in the 
Lord, mercy shall compass him about." Psalm 
xxxii. 10. 

18* 



2IO STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mr. King. Can you tell me wherefore we ought 
to call upon the Lord? 

Mary, '•'- Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, 
call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he 
will abundantly pardon." Isaiah Iv. 6, 7. 

Mr. King. Why should we give honour to the 
word and name of God ? 

Charlotte yames. Because it is written, " Thou 
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour, 
and power ; for thou hast created all things, and for 
thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev. iv. 11. 

Mr. King. Why should we serve God ? 

Thomas Francis. Because it is written, " Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt 
thou serve." Matt. iv. 10. 

Mr. King had now gone through the duty toward 
God with the children ; and he next proceeded to 
examine them in their duty toward their neighbour. 
And first he put this question to Mary ; " Do you 
recollect what directions our Lord Jesus Christ gave 
to us when on earth, about loving our neighbour and 
doing as we would be done by ?" 

Mary. " And as ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love 
them which love you, what thank have ye? for sin- 
ners also do even the same. But love ye your ene- 
mies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing 
again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall 
be the children of the Highest ; for he is kind to the 
unthankful and to the evil." Luke vi. 31-35. 



THE CATECHISM. 211 

Mr. Kiiig. Why must we honour and obey our 
parents ? 

Charlotte Jaines. Because, " The eye that mock- 
eth at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, 
the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the 
young eagles shall eat it." Prov. xxx. 17. 

Mr. King. Why is it sinful to be disobedient to 
those w^ho are put over us ; such as our officers, if 
we are soldiers ; or our masters, if we are servants ; 
or our teachers and elders, if we are children? And 
why must every man honour and obey his king, or 
governor ? 

Not one of the children could answer this question ; 
so Mr. King said, " When you go home, look at the 
thirteenth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ro- 
mans, and there you will find these words : ' Let 
every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For 
there is no power but of God ; the powers that be 
are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth 
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they 
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the 
evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do 
that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the 
same.' " 

Then Mr. King said, " Why must we not hurt 01 
do harm to any .'*" 

Mary. " Be wise as serpents, and harmless as 
doves." Matt. x. 16. 

Mr. Khig. Wherefore should we be true and 
just in all our doings, wronging and defrauding no 
man ? 

Charlotte yaines. Because it is written, " That 



212 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any 
matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all 
such, as we also have forewarned you and testified." 
I Thess. iv. 6. 

Afr. King. Why is it very sinful to bear malice 
and hatred in our hearts? 

Thomas Francis. Because, " w^hosoever hateth 
his brother is a murderer." i John iii. 15. 

Mr. King. Wherefore should we keep our hands 
from picking and stealing.? 

William ya77ies. " Let him that stole steal no 
more ; but rather let him labour, working with his 
hands the thing which is good, that he may have to 
give to him that needeth." Eph. iv. 28. 

Mr. King. Where is the wickedness of an unruly 
tongue spoken of.-* 

Mary. " The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity ; 
so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth 
the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of na- 
ture ; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind 
of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things 
in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of man- 
kind ; but the tongue can no man tame ; it is an un- 
ruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless the 
God, even the Father ; and therewith curse we men 
which are made after the similitude of God." James 
iii. 6-9. 

Mr. King. Wherefore should we keep our bodies 
free from drunkenness? 

Charlotte yames. " Be not deceived ; no drunk- 
ard shall inherit the kingdom of God." i Cor. vi., 
part of 9th and loth verses. 



THE CATECHISM. 213 

Mr. Xing. In what manner should we strive to 
live while we remain in this world ? 

Charlotte Jaines. " We should study to be quiet, 
and to do our own business, and to work w^ith our 
own hands ; that we may walk honestly toward them 
that are without, and that we may have lack of 
nothing." i Thess. iv. 11, 12. 

It was now so near the time of the evening drum- 
beating, that Mr. King left off questioning the chil- 
dren, that the people might be in the barracks in 
time. 

It was soon settled who were to have the Bibles, 
^he first choice was Mary's, the second Charlotte 
James', and the third little Thomas Francis'. When 
Mr. King presented them with the books, he said, 
" My dear children, take these holy books, and let 
them be a guide and rule to you in your passage from 
earth to heaven. You have answered your questions 
very well and seem, for 3^our age, to have a consid- 
erable acquaintance with the word of God ; but re- 
member, dear children, that if you do not practice 
what you know, your condemnation will be greater 
at the day of judgment, than that of those people 
who never had an opportunity of knowing God's 
will ; ' For it had been better for you not to have 
known the way of righteousness, than, after you 
have known it, to turn from the holy command- 
ment delivered unto you.'" 2 Peter ii. 21. Then 
he dismissed the children ; and they, with their 
parents, made haste home, it being rather a late 
hour. 

As they walked home, Mrs. Mills said to Mrs. 
Browne, " Mary must thank you, Mrs. Browne, 



214 



STORIES ILLUSTRATING. ETC. 



for the Bible which she has obtained to-day- It 
lies not in my power to give her the instruction 
which you have done, and I bless God that I was 
directed to choose such a godmother for my little 
girl." 




STORY XXI 



Showing that we cannot serve God and Mammon. 




T might be about a fortnight, or a little more, 
after the catechising of the children in the 
church, that Sergeant-major James called in 
at Sergeant Browne's berth., and said, " Mrs. Browne, 
you have not been over to see my wife, I don't know 
the day when. I wish you would come, for she 
wants to have a little talk with you." 

'^ I hope there is nothing amiss," says Mrs. Browne. 

"Why, no," said the sergeant-major; "no great 
things, I trust ; but Charlotte gives my wife some un- 
easiness. The girl is not so dutiful as she should be, 
I must say the truth ; and my wife wants to break 
her mind upon it to you." 

" Well," says Mrs. Browne, " I wHl come over to- 
morrow ; not that my opinion is worth your wife's 
asking ; but it may be some comfort to her to have 
a friend to speak with concerning anything that 
troubles her." 

So the sergeant-major took his leave, first saying, 
"You had better come before breakfast, Mrs. Browne, 
for it is a good step to our bungalow., and the weather 
is exceedingly hot." 

215 



2l6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

As soon as the sergeant-major was gone, Mrs. 
Browne said to her husband, "I wonder what is the 
matter now? I am sure Mrs. James has taken pains 
with her children ; and it would grieve me much if 
they should not afford her comfort." 

" Why," says the sergeant, " it never will answer, 
wife, to be serving two masters. Some few folks (I 
wish there were more of them in the w^orld) are for 
serving God entirely ; and there are many others all 
for Mammon ; but as for poor Mrs. James, she is for 
serving both. She is a mighty woman for making a 
figure in this world, and she would fain do well in 
the next too. But it will not do — I never saw it an- 
swer yet : ' No man can serve two masters, as our 
Lord hath said ; for either he will hate the one, and 
love the other ; or else he will hold to the one and 
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mam- 
mon.' Matt. vi. 24. These children of James' have 
learned catechisms, and hymns, and prayers, and 
texts without end ; they showed themselves to be 
good Bible scholars in the church, last Friday was a 
fortnight ; but, as old Sergeant Cooper used to say, 
though there is a plaster for all sores in the Bible, 
the plaster will not heal unless it be applied to the 
sore. So these children have, I fear, never been 
taught to apply the Scripture, and bring it home to 
themselves ; neither have they seen their parents 
shaping their lives to the Bible rules ; but, on the 
contrary, they have seen them following the fashions 
of the world : then, where is the wonder, if the 
young ones do not turn out as they should do .?" 

" There is much truth in what you say," replied 
Mrs. Browne. 



THE CATECHISM. 217 

Sergeant Browne. Mr. King gave us an excel- 
lent discourse while you were in the hospital. I 
never heard a better, and the text was this : " And 
Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long 
halt ye between the two opinions.? if the Lord be 
God, follow him ; but if Baal, then follow him. And 
the people answered him not a word." i Kings xviii. 
21. There were many things in that discourse that 
made me look to m3^self with shame. 

Nothing more passed between Sergeant Browne 
and his wife on this subject that night ; and the next 
morning, while the men were at parade, Mrs. 
Browne took her work and went over to the ser- 
geant-major's bungalow. 

She found Mrs. James sitting in the verandah 
alone, for the children were gone to take a walk : 
so sitting down by her, Mrs. James soon explained 
to Mrs. Browne the cause of her trouble. "I am 
sure," said Mrs. James, "from the day of their birth, 
no mother has been a greater slave to her children 
than I have been to mine. I have fed them with 
the best, I have clothed them with the best, and I 
have provided them with the best learning in my 
power. First, Edward Burns, of Captain Smith's 
company, who was a capital scholar, taught them to 
read, write and cipher ; he also made them learn 
the whole of the Church Catechism by heart, to- 
gether with scores of hymns out of the hymn-book ; 
and since he died, which is upward of two years, 
James Law has come every day, when not on duty, 
to hear them read, and to bring them forward in 
their writing and ciphering ; besides setting them 
verses from the Bible, which I am at the pains to 
19 



21 8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

make them learn. Then Charlotte can mark as 
prettily as any girl in the country ; and as to stitch- 
ing and flowering, and doing the carpet-work, I will 
match her with the very best. And I do not think 
that even your little goddaughter can read better 
than my Kitty, though Mary is the elder by four 
months. And now," adds Mrs. James, "is it not 
ver}^ hard, when I hoped to begin to reap the fruit 
of all my labours, and cares, and expense, to see 
Charlotte goinsT altoo^ether wronsr? The serc^eant- 
major has great reason to expect an ensigncy in this 
regiment, in a few months ; my children then will 
have a right to rank among the best : and Charlotte, 
who is a well-looking girl, might expect a husband 
even among the gentlemen ; but her own obstinacy 
and undutifulness will be her downfall. In spite of 
all I can say or do, when my back is turned, she 
will run over into the barracks ; and there she is for 
hours, gossipping with the women, and romping 
with the lads — for the officers to see when they come 
through. I have threatened to lock her up, and I 
will be as good as my word, for she will break my 
heart." Here the poor woman burst into tears, for 
her trouble was great : and Mrs. Browne, who was 
really very sorry for the anxious mother, endeavoured 
to comfort her. 

"What can I do, Mrs. Browne? — What can I 
do.''" asked Mrs. James, when she could speak. 
"Do give me your advice. You have brought up 
several motherless girls in the barracks, and they 
have, for the most part, done well : tell me what 
your method is." 

"I strive to make them fear God," answered 



THE CATECHISM. 219 

Mrs. Browne. "I teach them the word of God, and 
pray for them ; .and while they are young I don't 
spare the rod, when I see occasion to use it." 

•"Well," said Mrs. James, "and do I not cause 
my children to learn God's word.? Could Charlotte 
have got that Bible in the church if she had not 
-some knowledge of religion .f* I cannot blame my- 
self for neglecting her religious instruction — I can- 
not indeed, Mrs. Browne. But do give me your 
advice — what can I do.? Must I lock her up.? Her 
father has beat her, and that several times." 

Mrs. Browne. Beating and locking up may do 
with little ones, Mrs. James ; but it seldom answers 
with grown girls. 

Mrs. James. But you do not tell me what I can 
do better. Pray point out wdiere the fault lies, if 
any fault there is in my management of the girl .? 
Do, Mrs. Browne, give me your opinion. You 
have had such success in the bringing up of several 
girls, now grown women, that I would gladly have 
your advice. 

Mrs. Browne, had, it is true, brought up several 
young women well in the barracks, and they had 
married, and become good wives ; and she now 
made answer to Mrs. James that if she really 
wished for her advice, she would give it her, with- 
out fail, in the evening ; when she should have had 
time to consider the marter better, and to judge a 
little of Mrs. James' method with her children. 

By this time the sergeant-major and the three 
young ones were come in ; and they all sat down to 
breakfast. Mrs. Browne, bearing in mind the con- 
versation that had just passed between herself and 



220 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. James, took a good deal of notice of the be- 
haviour of the parents toward the children, and of 
the children to the parents. The sergeant-major, as 
soon as he came in, called for a tumbler of brandy 
and water, and made it pretty strong. The weather 
was very hot, and the poor man was ready to drop ; 
so that he would have excused himself for taking 
such an indulgence in a morning ; although I have 
no doubt that a good dish of tea would have cooled 
him better, and done him more good. But Mrs. 
Browne was greatly vexed, when he had drank off 
two parts of the brandy and water, to see him divide 
the rest between William and little Kitty ; Mrs. 
James sitting by and taking no notice. 

There was tea, and bread and butter, and plenty 
of fried bacon, eggs, and fish, for breakfast ; and the 
children were allowed to take what they pleased, 
and eat or leave, just as they fancied ; so that they 
wasted more than they ate, which is an ugly and 
sinful custom, considering how many poor people 
would be glad of those bits and fragments which 
children have been fingering and throwing about. 

Mrs. Browne also observed that the children spoke 
very pertly to their parents, and very rudely to each 
other ; and that Mrs. James made much difference 
in her behaviour to Charlotte and to little Kitty ; for 
nothing that Kitty could do was wrong, while she 
was continually finding^fault w^ith Charlotte, and 
snubbing her, even when there was no need. "And 
here again," thought Mrs. Browne, " is another great 
mistake of parents. While children are young, and 
a little strict management and proper chastisement 
might do them great service, we withhold both the 



THE CATECHISM. 221 

one and the other, indulging them in all their whims 
and little evil ways ; but when they begin to advance 
to man's or woman's estate — when the world strews 
their way thick w^ith temptations and snares, and the 
only safe place for them is home — then parents are, 
from morning till night, contradicting and thwarting 
them, so that they are glad to go anywhere to get 
out of the way of them." 

Just as the family had finished their breakfast, and 
Mrs. Browne and Mrs. James had taken out their 
work, James Law came over from the barracks, and, 
calling the young folks into the verandah^ he heard 
them read a chapter, and gave to each their verses 
for the day. When he had done, Mrs. James called 
to him. "James Law," said she, "won't you come 
in, and sit a little, and take a glass of something 
this warm day." 

"No, thank you, Mrs. James," he answered, "I 
must be going ; only be so kind as to see that the 
young folks learn what I have set them." 

"Surely," says Mrs. James. So she accordingly 
made them come in, and sit at one end of the room, 
learning their verses, while she and Mrs. Browne 
sat down to their work at the other. 

Mrs. James was plaiting some fine lace upon a 
worked muslin gown, and, as she busily plied her 
needle, she said to Mrs. Browne, "I am getting this 
gown ready to go to Soudagur Dawson's to-morrow. 
It is his birth-day, and there will be as many as five- 
and-twenty or thirty people there ; and I imagine we 
shall have a dance." 

"A dance!" says Mrs. Browne, smiling: "3^ou 
will find it very hot. Last Wednesday night the 
19 « 



222 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

people were complaining how hot it was in church, 
and some of them said that they would go there no 
more till it was cooler. We should have thought it 
very hard if, while complaining of the 'heat, we 
had been forced up to dance." 

" Oh ! but the punkah will be going all the time," 
said Mrs. James, "or else, to be sure, we could not 
bear the exercise." 

vShe then called to her eldest daughter : " Why 
Charlotte what are you about there? Are not those 
verses learned yet.^ Don't you know that you have 
your own and sister's frock to get ready for to-mor- 
row night, and two or three more jobs.^* What are 
you dawdling about there .^" 

Charlotte answered, " La ! mother, what a hurr)' 
you are in ! How am I to learn four verses in three 
minutes ?" 

Mrs. yames. And how are you to get all the 
trimmings put on the frocks, if you don't make 
haste ? 

Charlotte. What, is there no tailor to be had in 
the barracks } 

Mrs. yames. Yes, truly, to soil the lace with 
their dirty hands ! 

Charlotte. I am sure they work very clean ; 
cleaner than I do, at any rate. 

Mrs. yaines. More shame for you to say so. 

This dispute was stopped by little Kitty getting 
up, and saying, " Mother, see if I can say my verse 
well enough." 

Mrs. James took the Bible in her hand, and the 
child repeated her verse, which was from i John iii. 
17: " Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his 



THE CATECHISM. 223 

brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of 
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God 
in him?" 

The child said the verse very exactly, and her 
mother commended her, bidding her say it as well 
to James Law the next day. At that moment there 
appeared, just opposite the door, without the veran- 
dah., a veiy old blind native woman, who was al- 
most naked, and her bones scarcely covered with 
skin ; a slender black child led her by the hand. She 
was a very dirty and miserable creature, and she 
begged for one fice — only one pice. 

Mrs. James called out, "What's there? Oh! 
what a frightful object !" 

" She wants 2i pice., mother," said Kitty. 

" Oh ! a pice indeed. I have something else to do 
with ray pice, ^' said Mrs. James, "than to give it to 
such vagabonds as those. Tell her to go, Kitty, or 
I'll send the cook-boy after her with a horsewhip." 

" But she is blind, mother," said the child. 

" Blind, indeed !" said Mrs. James ; " if we are 
to give to all the blind beggars about, our house shall 
never be free. Do tell her to be gone." 

By this time, Mrs. Browne, who had been looking 
into her work-bag, found a couple of pice in the 
corner of her housewife ; so she slipped them into 
Kitty's hand, and the child ran with them to the 
poor woman, wdio went away very well contented ; 
and Mrs. James, who was now hearing Charlotte 
repeat her verses, either did not see, or pretended 
not to see, what Mrs. Browne was doing. 

Mrs. Browne then listened to hear what Charlotte's 
verses were. They happened to be one of her 



224 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

favourite passages of Scripture, and were taken 
from I Peter iii. 1-4, wliere, speaking of women, 
the apostle gives them these directions : " Likewise, 
ye wives, be in subjection to 3'our ow^n husbands ; 
that, if any obey not the w^ord, they also may with- 
out the word be won by the conversation of the 
wives ; while they behold your chaste conversation 
coupled with fear. Whose adorning, let it not be 
that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of 
wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel ; but 
let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that wdiich 
is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and 
quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great 
price." " Oh ! mother," said Charlotte, almost be- 
fore she had finished the verses, " there's the man 
with the necklaces and the box of artificial flowers 
just crossing the parade. He is going over toward 
the quartermaster's bungalow. Shall I tell the coolie 
boy to run after him .?" 

" Do, do, child," says Mrs. James ; " he is the very 
person I want. He is just come in time — I want 
both a flower and a necklace." 

" What's that you say, wife.?" cried the sergeant- 
major, who was writing at a small table in a corner 
of the room. " What, more trumpery! You have 
half ruined me this month, as it is. Did not you lay 
out eight rupees fourteen pucker at what-do-ye-call- 
him's budgeroiv^ only last Monday, and I saw noth- 
ing for the money but a yard or two of old lace.?" 

Mrs. James. Old lace ! Why, it is this very 
lace that I am plaiting on my gowm. Old do you 
call it.? Why, it has never been wet with water yet. 

Sergeaiit-major. Well, I wish you could be con- 



THE CATECHISM. 225 

tent to dress like Mrs. Browne. Do }'ou see any 
lace, any trumpery about her.? — all is plain, neat and 
decent. 

Mrs. yames. Do you see anything that's not 
handsome about me } 

Sergea?it-major. Don't suppose that you please 
me by your finery. I had rather see you plain, and 
have the money in my pocket. 

Mrs. Jafnes. You are not then like any other 
man in the world. Would you have me disgrace 
you by my appearance } 

"I tell you, wife, I had lather save my money," 
returned the sergeant-major. 

By this time the man was come in with his 
artificial flowers, and feathers, and necklaces ; and 
just at the same time an orderly came from the 
adjutant to fetch the sergeant-major ; so Mrs. James 
and her daughters had time to examine the contents 
of the man's box without interruption — trying one 
flower and then another to their heads, and looking at 
themselves in a little glass which hung against the 
wall. Having made choice of such things as they 
wished, the next business was to beat down the man's 
price ; but the man being more obstinate than Mrs. 
James expected, she became excessively angry ; so 
that when the sergeant-major came in, he found the 
whole house in such confusion that he was glad to 
pay the man and send him offl 

Now all being quiet again, and the girls seated at 
their work by their mother's side, Mrs. James began 
to look about for her son ; for in the midst of the 
bustle Master William had laid his Bible down and 
ran off* to play. " Do, James," said she to her 
P 



226 S TORIES ILLUSTRATING 

husband, " see where that lad is. He is gone off 
without saying his verses, or writing his copy, or 
doing anything else which he should have done." 

The sergeant-major, who had just sat down to his 
writing, got up again, and looking about for his 
cane, he went out, and presently brought in the boy, 
and laying two or three smart strokes over his 
shoulders, " Let me see you leave 3'our books again 
and go to play, my gentleman," said he, " and I'll 
give you more of this sauce, I can tell you." 

" Why, father," said the boy, " I could say my 
verses, and my spelling too ; but mother was so busy 
with that feather-man that it was no use to ask her 
to hear me." 

" Well," says Mrs. James, " if you could say your 
verses the7t^ I suppose you can say them now.'" 

" To be sure I can, mother," said the boy. So he 
brought his verses to her, and very pretty ones they 
were. They were from Matt. v. 43-45 ; and the 
boy said them very well. 

Mrs. Browne was just thinking whether she might 
not put in a word, by way of enforcing to the boy 
what he had just repeated, when the sergeant-major, 
jumping up from his desk, to which he had once 
more sat down, with a motion that made the whole 
room shake, " Wife," said he, " I forgot to tell 3-ou 
that that vile dog. Sergeant Field, is like to be 
broke." 

" Broke !" said Mrs. James, her face growing red 
with pleasure ; " sure, that's too good news to be 
true." 

" It is true, however, as sure as I am here," an- 
swered the sergeant-major ; " and I would rather 



THE CATECHISM. 237 

have lost a hundred rupees out of my pocket than 
it should not be so. I only wish it had happened 
six years ago." 

Mrs. Brozvne. Is it Sergeant Field, of the Grena- 
diers, you are speaking of.? Poor man ! I never 
heard much harm of him — what has he done 
now } 

The sergeant-major then broke out more violently 
than ever against Sergeant Field : " I don't know 
what he has done now, and I don't care ; so as he 
gets broke, it is no matter to me what for. I only 
wish they would hang him. I know what he did 
six years ago for me. He carried a tale against me 
to the captain, and it went to the colonel. It was 
against me for a long time. I should have been an 
ensign months ago, if it had not been for that. I 
never have forgiven him, and never will." 

" No, that I hope you never will," says Mrs. 
James. " A low fellow ! And I am heartily glad 
that he is like to be broke ; and, as you say, I wish 
they could hang him." 

" But," says Mrs. Browne, "without entering into 
the rights of this matter, Mrs. James, should not we 
practice forgiveness to each other, as we hope to be 
forgiven? William," said she, turning to the boy, 
" what passage of Scripture were you just now re- 
peating? Was it not, 'Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
and pray for them which despitefully use you, and 
persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust?' " 



238 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. James interrupted Mrs. Browne by saying, 
"Who told you this news, James.?" 

Sergeant-major . Why, the adjutant told me it 
was sure to be so ; and he should know. 

Mrs. James. To be sure, if he does not, I don't 
know who should. But I still fear it is too good 
news to be true. 

Mrs. Browne said no more upon the subject of 
Christian forgiveness, and the sergeant-major re- 
turned to his writing ; and so the matter was dropped 
for that time. 

Mrs. James kept the children at their work till 
nearly one o'clock, for she was very anxious to make 
them industrious ; and at one they all sat down to 
dinner ; after which the young ones went into 
another room, and Mrs. Browne stayed with the ser- 
geant-major and his wife, while the sergeant-major 
smoked a cheroot and took a glass or two of spirits 
and water. 

" Well," says Mrs. James to Mrs. Browne as soon 
as the children were gone out, " you have seen our 
way of going on, We do most days as we have 
done to-day ; and I think you will say that we keep 
our children to their books and their work as close 
as any family in the regiment." . 

"Yes," said Mrs. Browne, " I must say you keep 
them to it pretty well." 

" And I think," continued Mrs. James, " if our 
children go wrong, we have nothing to blame our- 
selves for." To this Mrs. Browne made no answer. 
"I am sure I have done the part of the best of 
mothers," added Mrs. James. 

Mrs. Browne was still silent; upon which the 



THE CATECHISM. 229 

sergeant-major, taking his cheroot out of his mouth, 
and shaking the ashes upon the table, said, "Mrs. 
Browne, you don't speak : have you any fault to find 
with my wife's management of her children? I am 
sure there is no neglect in the article of religion, and 
that's what you are very particular about, I know." 

Airs. Browne. Why, sergeant-major, it is not 
altogether prudent to be meddling in other people's 
concerns. I have lived long enough in the world to 
know that such a mode of proceeding seldom an- 
swers any good purpose. 

"Oh!" says Mrs. James, reddening, "don't be 
afraid, Mrs. Browne, I beg. You'll give no offence, 
I assure you, whatever you say." And she fidgeted 
in her chair, and began smoothing her gown over 
her knees, and fanning herself with her pocket hand- 
kerchief. 

Mrs. Browne thought to herself, " I am now in a 
difficulty ; wdiether I speak or hold my tongue, I 
shall give offence. But I must trust to God to show 
me what is right, and to bear me through." She, 
however, remained silent, till the sergeant-major 
again pressed her to say if she had seen anything 
which she thought amiss in the management of the 
children. 

"Why, sergeant-major," said she, " it is an old 
saying, that one who stands by sees more of the game 
than those who play." 

"True, Mrs. Browne," answered the sergeant- 
major, who, to do him justice, was not, at least on 
this occasion, so fiery as his wife ; " so, if you please, 
let's have all out." 

"Well then," says Mrs. Browne, "you shall; and 

20 



330 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

first, I must observe, that, to find out whether we are 
going on right in the management of our young ones, 
we should consider what the Bible tells us of the na- 
ture of children, and of the state in which human 
creatures are born into this world." 

" True," said the sergeant-major : ••' that stands to 
reason, Mrs. Browne." 

Afrs. jBrow7ie. Now, you know, sergeant-major, 
that the Bible teaches us that man's nature is alto- 
gether filthy and abominable ; and that, before he is 
renewed, every imagination of the thoughts of his 
heart is only evil continually ; and further, that, in 
consequence of his exceeding sinfulness, every man 
born into this world is born under a sentence of con- 
demnation, and so remains, until he obtains forgive- 
ness through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
is made clean through his Spirit. 

Sergeant-7najo7'. Well, all that's true enough, 
Mrs. Browne. 

•'And so, I suppose," remarked Mrs. James, " that 
you think our children have more natural sin than 
other people's children. Where's your Christian 
charity now, Mrs. Browne .?" 

"I do not suppose they have more," answered 
Mrs. Browne, meekly ; " but I know they have as 
much, because we are told in the Bible that there is 
none good, no, not one ; they are altogether sinful." 

" W^ife," says the sergeant-major, " why do 3'ou 
interrupt Mrs. Browne? Hear what she has to 
say." 

Mrs. Browne. I had not much to say ; only 
this, that the nature of children being so very co- 
rupt, and they being liable, in consequence, to eter- 



THE CATECHISM. l'i^\ 

nal punishment, it has ever appeared to me to be the 
first duty of parents, and that to which all other con- 
cerns should give way, to endeavour, by every pos- 
sible means, to fix religious principles in their chil- 
dren's minds. We cannot amend our children's evil 
natures — we cannot give them new hearts — we can- 
not give them faith, for faith is the gift of God, the 
work of the Holy Spirit ; but we may give them 
religious instruction, and set before them such, an 
example of holy living as, we hope, with God's bless- 
ing, they themselves will be enabled to imitate. 

" Well," said Mrs. James, " and don't we give our 
children religious instruction? Why, Mrs. Browne, 
sure, your memory is mighty short !" 

Mrs. Browne replied, " It is one thing, Mrs. James, 
to teach our children catechisms, hymns and texts 
of Scripture ; and it is another thing to show them, 
by our example, that we are striving to conform our 
lives to that pure word of God which we cause 
them to learn. Children take more notice of what 
passes than we think. They soon find out where the 
practice of the parents agrees not with the lessons 
they teach." 

" I don't understand you, Mrs. Browne," answered 
Mrs. James, fanning herself more violently. "You 
must speak out plainer, if you wish me to be the 
better for what you have to say." 

Mrs. Browne. The Bible is given us as a rule of 
life and of faith. Now, as I said before, it is of little 
use to teach our children to read the Bible, and to 
learn it by heart, unless we point out to them also 
the necessity of being guided by it. The Holy 
Scriptures contain both precepts and promises ; but 



232 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

unless we ourselves submit to their precepts, we have 
no right to expect the accomplishment of their prom- 
ises with regard to our children. 

Sei'geant-major. All that is true enough, Mrs. 
Browne ; but what has all this to do with our chil- 
dren ? Come to the point, my good \voman. What 
have you observed to-day wherein our practice goes 
against the Bible-lessons which our children have 
learned ? 

Afrs. Browne. Your three children had three dif- 
ferent lessons set them to-day from the Bible. 

" Well, and so they had, Mrs. Browne," said 
James. 

Mrs. Browne. The first contained a command 
to those who had this world's good to help the poor 
and needy ; and while your little girl was repeating 
the passage, a poor woman came and asked alms. 
There was a good opportunity of showing the child, 
by your practice, that 3'ou believed the words she 
had just repeated to be the words of God, and that 
you wished to manifest a ready obedience to them. 

Mrs. yamcs. And so I am to give to every idle 
vagabond that comes to the house, for example's 
sake to the children ! In such a case, I should soon 
be in a way to ask charity myself, I believe. 

''No one was ever the poorer," said Mrs. Browne, 
"for giving to those who want, 'for he that giveth 
to the poor lendeth to the Lord.'" 

Mrs. yames. And I suppose I did wrong to buy 
those flowers and necklaces too ; because in Char- 
lotte's verses, women are forbidden to put on orna- 
ments and finery ! And my husband also did wrong, 
perhaps, in rejoicing over the punishment of that 



THE CATECHISM. 233 

vile fellow, Field ; because, forsooth ! we ought to do 
good to them that curse us, as William had it written 
in his lesson to-day ! Why, at that rate, we must 
give up the world altogether, and be quite different 
from other folks. 

"Certainly," said Mrs. Browne, "we must either 
serve God or Mammon. We cannot serve both." 

"You are going too far now, Mrs. Browne," said 
the sergeant-major. "It was never intended that 
we should keep so close to the Bible as you would 
make out. My wife and I are not Methodists. We 
never set up for that ; nor did we ever pretend to 
despise the world." 

Mrs. Browne looked grave, and answered, "I 
have no more to say, sergeant-major, than this, that 
if you trust in God and serve him sincerely, he will 
never forsake you nor your children : but if you 
strive to make the world your friend, you must 
expect that things will not be with you as you could 
wish. Remember that sweet passage in the Psalms : 
' O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of 
Jacob his chosen. He is the Lord our God: his 
judgments are in all the earth. He hath remem- 
bered his covenant for ever, the word which he 
commanded to a thousand generations. Which 
covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto 
Isaac ; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a 
law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant; say- 
i ig, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the 
lot of your inheritance : when they were but a few 
men in number ; yea, very few, and strangers in it. 
When they went from one nation to another, from 
one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man 



234 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

to do them wrong : yea, he reproved kings for their 
sakes ; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do 
my prophets no harm.' Psahii cv. 6-13. It is better 
to have the blessing of God for our children than 
the favour of the whole world." 

The sergeant-major looked grave, as if weighing 
Mrs. Browne's words : but Mrs. James replied, 
" Well, Mrs. Browne, you and I shall never agree, 
I perceive, on this matter ; so we had better let it 
rest ; I don't wish to see my children Methodists — 
I can't say I do." Whereupon she got up, and 
began stirring about the room, as if very busy. 
The sergeant-major then put his cheroot in his 
mouth, and Mrs. Browne took up her work. 

When the bugle sounded for parade, Mrs Browne 
said, "I must now^ be going, to get my husband's 
tea ;" and Mrs. James not pressing her to stay, as 
she would have done at another time, Mrs. Browne 
went home ; and glad enough she was to find her- 
self again in her own room, with this comfortable 
reflection, that she had been enabled, by God's 
grace, to deal sincerely with the sergeant-major 
and his wife, though she feared that no great good 
would be produced by it. 



STORY XXII. 




" My good child, know this, that thou art 7iot able to do 
these things of thyself, nor to walk in the C07n7nand- 
ments of God, and to serve hi7n, without his special 
grace; which thou tnust lear7i at all times to call for 
by dilige7it prayer. ^'' 

HE next day after Mrs. Browne had been at 
Mrs. James', it happened that, their hus- 
bands being on duty, Mrs. Mills and Mrs. 
Francis came in to drink tea with Mrs. Browne. 

Now, as they were sitting together, their discourse 
turned upon religious matters, as it generally did 
when they met ; and more especially at this time it 
related to the best methods which pious parents 
could adopt for the purpose of training up their 
little ones in the way of righteousness. "Teaching 
children to repeat catechisms and verses from the 
Bible will not do much," said Mrs. Browne, "un- 
less we press upon them the necessity of practicing 
what they learn." 

"And," said Mrs. Francis, "we should be careful 
to let them know that they have not in themselves 
the power to do one good thing, or to think one 
good thought ; but that for these purposes they 

2:0 



236 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

are, by diligent pra}er, to seek power from God, 
who, through his blessed Son, will help them to 
do all good things, as the Lord himself speaks, 'I 
am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth 
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.'" John 
XV. 5. 

Mj's. Mills. What you say is very true, Mrs. 
Francis. For since we ourselves can do nothing as 
we ought, without God's assistance, how absurd 
would it be to expect from children what even wiser 
people are unable to perform. We should, there- 
fore, be more careful than we are, in directing our 
young ones where to look for help, when we would 
have them do well. 

"This discourse," said Mrs. Francis, "brings to 
my mind a circumstance that happened in our 
neighbourhood when I was . young. I knew the 
families well to which it relates, and had the story 
from one w4io was well acquainted with all the 
particulars." 

" Oh !" said Mary, who w^as sitting with her w^ork 
at her mother's feet, "do, dear Mrs. Francis, tell us 
that story. Pray do : I am sure my godmother 
would like to hear it." 

"And I am sure my goddaughter would," said 
Mrs. Browne, laughing. "Mary speaks one word 
for me, and two for herself; but do, Mrs. Francis, 
let us have it. I love to hear such tales as you tell 
us : they are both pleasant and profitable." 

So Mrs. Francis began her story ; for she was one 
who was always willing to make herself useful and 
agreeable. 



THE CATECHISM. 237 

MRS. FRANCIS' STORY. 

There are many families in England, especially 
among the middling sort — I mean such as are neither 
high nor low — who live from father to son in a 
decent, creditable way, making a fair appearance 
among their neighbours. These persons, knowing 
little more than the form of religion, and remaining 
quite ignorant of the plague of their own hearts, 
believe themselves to be very good, because they fall 
not into gross sins, and would be mightily offended 
with any one who should presume to consider them 
as miserable sinners, needing the blood of the Lord 
Jesus Christ to wash them from the pollution of 
their manifold offences. Now we who travel into 
various countries, and are thrown into all kinds of 
company, have this advantage attending our condi- 
tion — that we are thereby introduced to a larger 
acquaintance with our own evil hearts ; inasmuch as 
we are beset with such trials and temptations as 
they are seldom exposed to who live quietly at home. 
But now for the story which I promised you. 

In the town where I was bred there lived a cer- 
tain family, possessing a good yearly income and a 
very handsome house. The family was large, and 
lived in a state of great respectability ; paying all 
their tradesfolks and servants regularly, attending 
the church on Sundays, going well clothed, keeping 
a good table, and now and then giving a little of 
what they could spare to the poor. Moreover, they 
lived without quarrelling and wrangling among 
themselves ; for many of the genteeler sort in Eng- 
land hold quarrelling and scolding in abhorrence ; 



238 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

not so much, I fear, because it is displeasing to God, 
who has commanded us to love one another, but be- 
cause it is a token of low breeding, and much prac- 
ticed amono^ the vulgfar. 

The name of this family was Green. There was 
Mr. Green and his wife, and their three girls — Miss 
Susan, and Miss Kitty, and Miss Margaret; besides 
Mrs. Green's two sisters, who lived in the same 
house with their brother and his family, both of 
them respectable elderly ladies. 

Mrs. Green was a clever, bustling woman ; very 
smart in her dress ; as neat and managing in her 
house as any lady in all the town ; exceedingly 
regular in giving her orders to her children and 
servants, and not less so in seeing that they were 
obeyed ; and, as far as she could do it without being 
particular, she was for serving God herself, and 
making her household do the same. But her notions 
of religion were altogether wrong. Not knowing 
the wickedness of her own heart in particular, or of 
the human heart in general, she fancied it was no 
very difficult matter to keep God's commandments; 
and she used to say that those who did their best 
would be accepted of God, though they might now 
and then fail through the weakness of their nature ; 
for she would allow that we are naturally weak, 
though not naturally wicked. As to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, though she observed his birth by eating plum- 
pudding at Christmas, and kept a fast on Good- 
Friday, which is the day of his crucifixion, yet I do 
not think she had true notions of him as her Re- 
deemer. 

Mrs. Green, as I said before, had three girls. Miss- 



THE CATECHISM. 239 

Susan and Miss Kitty were, like their mother, bust- 
ling, busy, managing bodies ; very neat in their dress, 
and pretty in their behaviour ; so that Mrs. Green 
would have it they were the best girls in the world. 
But Miss Margaret, the youngest, was altogether a 
different child. When she was a little baby, and 
cutting her teeth, she was so weakly that every one 
thought she would die ; and the doctor declared that 
their only chance of saving her would be to have 
her nursed in the country. So a nurse was looked 
out for her ; and Miss was sent eight miles into the 
country, into a very fine air, to be nursed. The 
woman was my mother's own sister ; and Miss 
stayed with her nurse till she was four years and a 
half old, and then Mrs. Green fetched her home. 
The poor child cried sadly when she left her nurse, 
and fretted, I was told, many days and weeks after 
her mammy, as she called her. My aunt also fretted 
very much after the little girl ; but she lived so far 
oft' that she could not often walk over to see her. 

When Miss Margaret returned home, she was very 
fat and hearty, and had cheeks as red as roses. But 
she was a little rude, romping girl, and would climb 
up the trees, and scramble over the wall of her papa's 
garden ; and if she had a clean frock put on, it was 
so dirty in half an hour that it was not fit to be 
seen. Moreover, she was always in mischief; break- 
ing cups, and saucers, and plates, dirtying the clean 
rooms, scratching the tables with pins, and doing 
many other troublesome things. 

Her mamma did not like to see her so rude ; but, 
imputing this chiefly to the rusticity of her nurse, 
she imagined that her little daughter would soon be 



240 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

brought about with care. The fault, however, was 
not in the nurse, but in the child's temper. She 
was naturally of a gidd}', thoughtless disposition ; 
for different children are inclined to different faults, 
though, in reality, all are equally sinners before God. 

Accordingly, Mrs. Green and Miss's aunts tried 
every way, as she grew older, to make her leaA^e off 
her rude, troublesome tricks. Sometimes the}' locked 
her up in a room by herself, when she had been in 
mischief; sometimes they tied her hands behind her ; 
sometimes they gave her no dinner ; and her papa 
chastised her several times ; but all to no purpose. 
For as soon as the punishment was over. Miss was 
off again, and about some other naughty trick ; and 
all they got by punishing her was, that she grew sly, 
and would try to hide her faults by telling lies about 
them. 

Her two elder sisters had a room provided for 
them, in which they had each a little bed, with white 
curtains, and a chest-of-drawers to keep their clothes 
in ; and between the chest-of-drawers, against the 
wall, were the Ten Commandments and the Lord's 
Prayer, of their own marking, set in gilt frames. 
Their mamma had accustomed them to make their 
own beds, and to keep their clothes with so much 
order in their drawers that they could find anything 
even in the dark. Moreover, they were enjoined to 
remember the commandments of God, which were 
hung against the wall, and to repeat them often, in 
order to the due observance of them ; but it was 
never pointed out to them by any person that their 
wills were so depraved and their natures so inimical 
to God that they could not keep these command- 



THE CATECHISM, 24 1 

ments while in an unsanctified state. So while 
they remembered to keep their things in order, and 
were mindful every night before they said their 
prayers to repeat the commandments, poor Miss 
Susan and Miss Kitty never once dreamed that they 
were living in sin, and were even as others, having 
hearts full of pride and selfishness, with all manner 
of evil thoughts. 

When Miss Margaret was seven years old, a bed 
and chest-of-drawers were prepared for her, and she 
was allov^ed to take her place in her sisters' room, 
with many directions from her mamma and aunts 
how to keep her things neatly. She was, at first, 
very much pleased, and ran up stairs to put all things 
to rights ; but after a while she grew negligent, 
and her sisters used to come to their mamma with 
constant complaints of her. Her clothes, instead of 
being in her drawers, were thrown about every part 
of her room ; her bed, instead of being made before 
breakfast, was seldom put to rights till noon ; and 
the locks of all her drawers were broken in less than 
a week. Nor was she less careless of her book and 
her work than she was of her clothes ; she never 
would say a task without being first punished ; and 
as to work, she never did any, unless her mamma or 
her aunts were sitting by. 

One day, when she was about eight years old, her 
mamma and her aunts talked to her in the way 
which I shall now relate. They were all sitting at 
work in the parlour one afternoon, when little Miss 
was brought in by one of the servants, with the re- 
mains of a handsome china cup, which the child 
had broken by throwing a ball in at the kitchen win- 
21 Q 



242 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

dow. The servant was sorry to tell of her, but she 
did not dare to hide the matter from her mistress, 
because Mrs. Green was very particular. 

" Margaret," said Mrs. Green, " is there never to 
be an end of complaints against you? Have you 
not been forbidden to throw your ball against the 
house.'* and yet you are continually doing it, contrary 
to my commands. Know you not that you are com- 
manded by God to honour your father and mother.-* 
and yet you pay as little heed to my words as to the 
wind." 

Miss answered that she did not mean to break the 
cup or to make her mamma angry. She had for- 
gotten, she said, that she had been forbidden to 
throw the ball against the house. 

Then said one of her aunts, " You think. Miss, 
that it is a proper excuse to make, when you have 
broken your parents' orders, to say that you had for- 
gotten them. And are you resolved, Margaret, to 
continue in disobedience to your parents } There is 
nothing, child, that you will do to oblige your friends ; 
you. give up your whole thoughts to please yourself. 
You break your parents' commands, and endeavour 
to hide your faults by telling lies. Your whole time 
is spent in idleness ; and the expense you put your 
father to in repairing what you waste and spoil 
would be sufficient to maintain a poor child." 

Mrs. Green. Besides the constant uneasiness 
which you cause me. I have no comfort in you : 
and, indeed, I dread lest you should grow up not 
only to be a disgrace to your family, but to ensure 
your own eternal misery. 

When little Miss heard her friends talk in this 



THE CATECHISM. 243 

way, she burst into tears ; and, running up to her 
mamma and aunts, she kissed them, promising that 
she would be a good girl. "I will keep all God's 
commandments," she said, as she ran up and kissed 
her mamma, "and all yours too. I will not break 
one of them ; and I will be very good. You shall 
never find fault with me again." 

Mrs. Gi'een. And when will you begin to be 
good ? 

Mai'garet. To-morrow, mamma. You shall see 
how good I will be to-morrow. 

And she intended to do as her mamma wished ; 
because she feared the disagreeable consequences of 
continuing to act otherwise ; but her will being 
corrupt, like that of all other children who are not 
daily renewed by the Holy Spirit, she felt no real 
inclination to what was right ; nor had her friends 
ever directed her where to look for grace and 
strength for the performance of her several duties. 
So, the next day, confiding wholly in herself, in- 
stead of being better than usual, she was in more 
mischief than common. She got up early in the 
morning, full of herself and as well pleased as if 
she had already done all the good things she had 
been talking of; but before her mamma came down 
to breakfast, she fell into a passion with one of her 
sisters and beat her with a stick : and though she 
begged her sister's pardon, and gave her a little pin- 
cushion to make it up, yet her sister told of her. 
Thus they were both naughty ; but Miss Margaret's 
intended good day was spent in her mother's closet, 
for Mrs. Green was so angry with her that she 
locked her up. 



244 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

The next day, she was brought before her aunts 
and her mamma, by whom she w^as well talked to, 
and told again that unless she did better she would 
come to a bad end : upon which with many tears 
she again promised to be good, and again broke 
her promise. And so it happened, not only once or 
twice, or ten or twenty times, but until everybody 
was tired — Miss Margaret of promising to be good, 
her aunts and mamma of talking to her. At length, 
her mamma and her aunts began not to love her so 
well as they used to do ; at which she became very un- 
happy, and would often say to herself, " I wish I was 
better, for I know that nobody loves me ; but though 
I wish to be good, I do not know how to be so." 

When she was eleven years old, she went with 
her sisters to a dancing-school, as was the fashion in 
that town ; and Mrs. Green would have her family 
do everything which was thought fashionable and 
genteel. One evening, in winter. Miss Margaret 
had danced till she was quite heated ; after which, 
she came out into the cold air without putting on a 
w^arm cloak, and she caught a violent cold. Her 
mother did not think much of this cold at first, ob- 
serving the child to be as playful as usual, and not 
less full of mischief. But when, in consequence of 
its long continuance, she grew thin and pale, Mr. 
and Mrs. Green began to be alarmed, for, with all 
her faults, they still dearly loved their child. 

Upon calling in the doctor, who was now sent for 
without delay, he was surprised to find her so ill ; 
advising that she should be sent to change the air 
in some country place as soon as the weather should 
get warmer. 



THE CATECHISM. 245 

As soon as the doctor was gone, Mrs. Green 
called Miss Margaret to her, and told her what he 
had said. "Oh! mamma, mamma !" said she, " if 
I must go from home, let me go to my nurse's ; for 
I was good when I lived with my poor nurse, and I 
was happy too. I remember the corn-fields, and 
the pretty blue flowers among the corn ; I remember 
the wide common, on which the sheep fed, and the 
sound of the wether's bell — I was happy then ; but 
I have never been happy since, for as I have got 
older, I have become more and more naughty. No 
one loves me, and I do not love myself. I would be 
better, but I cannot." 

The poor child did not then know that she was 
in the case of all the other children of Adam who 
have not received a new heart by faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. She could do no good thing, indeed ; 
and she did not know who was able to deliver her 
from the power of sin. 

Mrs. Green kissed her daughter, and said, "Well, 
my dear, if yowx papa gives his consent, you shall 
have your wish, and go to your nurse's ; and as to 
what is past, I freely forgive you, my dear child ; 
and so do we all." 

Accordingly, Mr. Green sent for Miss's nurse as 
soon as the winter was gone, and the poor woman 
came immediately. Miss Margaret had not seen 
her nurse for several years ; Mrs. Green having dis- 
couraged her visits, because Miss fretted so much on 
her going away. And now, wdien she saw her 
nurse, through the parlour window, coming up to 
the house door, she was almost ready to run her 
head through the glass with excess of jo}'. When 
21* 



246 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

the poor woman found out her dear young lady was 
to go back with her, she could scarcely help crying 
for joy ; though she was not a little sorry to see her 
looking so ill. So the nurse stayed that night at 
Mrs. Green's, and the next morning she set out to 
take Miss home with her. 

As soon as they were in the carriage together, 
"My dear Miss Margaret," said the nurse, "it 
grieves me to find you so ill ; but, with God's bless- 
ing, I hope, when I have you at home, to see you 
get better daily. You shall go out with me every 
morning and evening, to milk the cows in the 
meadow, and to gather heath and broom on the 
common. You remember the common, where you 
and my little Tommy ran after the sheep .?" 

"Ah, nurse !" said Miss, "I was happy then, and 
I have never been happy since." 

"Never happy since that time, my dear!" said 
the nurse. " What, not with your papa and mamma, 
your aunts and your sisters.^ I am afraid then the 
fault was yours." 

"I believe it was, nurse," said Miss; "and yet I 
hardly know. They wanted me to be good, and I 
could not be good." 

"How is that. Miss Margaret.?" said the nurse. 
"I am afraid you did not wish to be good." 

Margaret. Sometimes I did, indeed ; but still I 
could not. 

Nurse. But, my dear, what did your mamma 
want you to do which you found so hard.'* 

Margaret. To be good, and to mind my books 
and my work. 



THE CATECHISM. 247 

JVurse. What do you mean by being good, my 
dear ? 

Margaret stared at her nurse, and said, " Why, to 
be good is to keep God's commandments and to 
obey my parents." 

JVurse. Obeying your father and mother, if they 
order you to do nothing wrong, is according to one 
of God's commandments. The fifth commandment 
says, "Honour thy father and thy mother," you 
know. And so you have been unhappy, my dear, 
because your mother wished you to keep God's 
commandments } 

Margaret. I have been unhappy a long time, 
nurse, because I could not do as my mother and 
other friends wished me to do. In one way or 
other I was always offending them. And then one 
talked to me, and another talked to me, till I was 
tired of them and myself too. 

Nurse. And was this the case with your sisters? 

Margaret. No. 

Nurse. Then I suppose that they kept God's 
commandments better than you did. 

Margaret. My mother and aunts did not find 
them out so easily : they could steal sweetmeats 
and sugar-candy, and needles and thread, and tell 
lies too, without even being suspected. 

Nurse. Well, my dear, we have nothing, at 
present to do with them. It seems that you all are 
naughty, and that your naughtiness has, in particu- 
lar, made you unhappy, and that you wish to be 
good. 

Margaret. I should like to be good, but I know 
I never shall. 



248 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Nurse. Never shall, my dear? Do 3^ou know 
what will become of you if you die in your sins? 

Mai'garet. Yes, I shall be miserable for ever, if 
I do not become good ; and I cannot be good. 

Ntirse. Then you must be miserable for ever, it 
seems. 

Margaret looked grave, and said, " I hope not." 

Nurse. But what way have you of escaping? 

Margaret began to cry, and put her arms round 
her nurse's neck : " Oh ! nurse, dear nurse, don't 
talk any more/' she said ; "" I am very unhappy." 

My poor child," said the nurse, " have you lived 
so long, and have you never been taught to know the 
state in which you are by nature? The Church 
teaches us ' that the condition of man after the fall 
of x\dam is such that he cannot turn and prepare 
himself by his own natural strength and good works, 
to faith, and calling upon God. Wherefore we have 
no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable 
to God, without the grace of God by Christ prevent- 
ing us, that we may have a good will, and working 
with us, when we have that good will.'*' loth 
Article. 

Margaret. Nurse, I do not understand this. 
Cannot I be good without God's help ? I never knew 
that before. 

The nurse replied : " When our father Adam 
sinned, he lost the power of doing well ; and we, his 
children, being brought by his fall into the same cir- 
cumstances cannot do well. But we must not con- 
sider this as a just excuse for our sin, nor will it be 
received as such by our Judge ; for God is holy in 
his nature, and ' is of purer eyes than to behold evil, 



THE CATECHISM. 249 

and cannot look on iniquity.' Hab. i.' 13. We are 
by nature at enmity with God, and we must seek a 
new nature more pleasing to him." 

" Nurse," said Miss Margaret, " I understand very 
little of what you are saying." 

" Is it so, my poor child ?" said the nurse. " Well, 
then, we will leave this matter till another day ; only 
carry this in your mind, my dear, that you cannot, 
without God's special help, keep his commandments. 
Remember what the Catechism says : ' My good 
child, know this, that thou art not able to do these 
things of thyself, nor to walk in the commandments 
of God, and to serve him, without his special grace ; 
which thou must learn at all times to call for by dil- 
igent prayer.' And now look before you ; do you 
see yonder hill, with the clump of firs at the top? 
When we get near those firs, you will be able to see 
the common, and my little cottage, afar off. Do you 
remember those trees, my love .?" 

" Oh yes, I do, nurse," said Margaret. " Did not 
we once go to church near those trees, and afterward 
to a house, where we had cream and strawberries.? 
Oh ! now I see the top of the church ; and there's 
the house, nurse. Who lives in the house now ?" 

So Margaret went on, entertaining herself with 
recollecting things which she had seen before, till 
she came in sight of the nurse's little cottage. It 
stood just beside a common, where there were many 
sheep feeding, and a few cows. It was thatched, or, 
as we should say in this country, choppered ; and it 
had a garden belonging to it, full of flowers and 
fruit trees. 

On approaching the place, they saw Tommy, the 



250 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

nurse's boy, milking the cows ; for the nurse had 
brought him up to help her to manage her cows and 
her garden ; her husband having been dead several 
years. Now^ Tommy w^as only Miss Margaret's 
age ; but, instead of being a trouble, he v^^as a com- 
fort and pleasure to his mother. You cannot think 
how pleased Miss was when she found herself in 
the little cottage again. She thought that her nurse's 
tea and bread and butter were better than any she 
had tasted at home ; and she ate more than she had 
done since the coming on of her illness. 

At night, when the nurse had got Miss Margaret's 
little bed ready, and prepared all things for going to 
rest, she called for Tommy to bring the Bible. 

"Where shall I read, mother.?" said the boy, as 
he laid the Bible upon the little round table on which 
they had been drinking tea. 

" Turn to the first of Genesis, my dear." So he 
began to read aloud, and read till he came to the 
end of the 27th verse, where it is written, " So God 
created man in his own image; in the image of 
God created he him ; male and female created he 
them." 

" Stop there," said the nurse, " and tell me, child, 
what that verse means." 

" Why, mother," says Tommy, " it means, that 
God made the first man after his own likness — like 
himself." 

Nurse. How like himself.^ 

Tommy. Why, upright, and good, and holy. 

" Right, my boy," said the nurse. Then turning 
to Margaret, " You see, miss, that God made men 
good ; and when they were good, they loved God, 



THE CATECHISM. 251 

and were able to keep his commandments ; but 
Adam, by eating the forbidden fruit, lost riiat image 
of the divine holiness, in which God had made him ; 
and he and his children have become so entirely 
filthy and corrupt, that we cannot, of ourselves, so 
much as wish to do a good thing. 

Margaret. I know that Adam and Eve disobeyed 
God by eating the forbidden fruit, and that God 
turned them out of Eden ; but I never heard about 
their getting wicked hearts. 

Nurse. Then, my dear, if you have read the 
story of Adam and Eve without considering that, 
you might as well not have read it at all ; for that 
story, I take it, is told in the Bible that we might 
gather from it, first, that we are wicked creatures, 
yea, utterly and exceedingly wicked, and not able, as 
I said before, to do one good thing ; and secondly, 
that our wicked and sinful hearts were not given us 
by God, but came to us through the disobedience of 
our father, Adam. 

Margaret. But are all the children of Adam so 
very wicked, nurse ? I never saw such wicked peo- 
ple as you talk of. 

Nurse. There are many things which often pre- 
vent human creatures from appearing outwardly 
wicked ; but till we are changed by the power of 
God, our hearts are so sinful as to render us incap- 
able of anything holy or good ; and if we could see 
the heart as God sees it, we should find, that where 
there is not the grace of God there is not even the 
wish to do right. 

Margaret. But how do we know that this is true, 
for we cannot look into people's hearts.'* 



252 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Nurse. We know it from the Bible. Tomm}'', 
turn to the 6th of Genesis, 5th, 6th and 7th verses. 

Torrnny. I have, mother. 

Nurse. What do you find there } 

Tommy. "And God saw that the wickedness of 
man was great in the earth, and every imagination 
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on 
the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the 
Lord said, I will destro}- man, whom I have created, 
from the face of the earth ; both man and beast, and 
the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air ; for it 
repenteth me that I have made them." 

Alargaret. Oh ! but that was before the flood. 
People can't be so bad now, I think. 

Nurse. You must not suppose, my dear, that 
there has been any change in the natural state of 
man's heart since that time. What does the Lord 
say after the flood? — "I will not again curse the 
ground any more for man's sake ; for the imagination 
of man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I 
again smite any more everything living, as I have 
done." Gen. viii. 21. 

Margaret. Well, I wish I could see into people's 
hearts. I can hardly believe (though it is in the 
Bible, to be sure) that people are as bad as you 
say. 

Nurse. Look into your own heart, my dear. You 
need look no farther to see manifest sin and down- 
right hatred of all that is good. Did you not tell me 
to-day that you have never been happy at home, be- 
cause your mamma wanted you to be good, and you 
could not be sfood ? 



THE CATECHISM. 253 

Margaret. Oh ! but I sometimes wish I could 
be good ; and you say people can't wish to be good 
without God's help. 

Nurse. You must remember that, for Christ's 
sake, God gives some grace to every man. St. John 
i. 9. Besides, you have the grace of your baptism 
to begin with. If it was to please God that you 
wished to do well, then I should say that God had, 
by his divine grace, changed your heart. 

Margaret. But how can I find out from what 
reason I wished to do right things.^ 

Nurse. Why, my dear, did you try to behave 
well as much when your mamma was not looking 
at you as when she was.^ 

Margaret. No, I did not, nurse. 

Nurse. Well then, my dear Miss, I fear it was 
only from dread of punishment that you sometimes 
did what seemed to be right ; and in that case there 
was no change of heart. It is from the fear of some 
kind of punishment or other that so many of us, who 
have no love of God, seem to do well. Many people 
are sober because, if they were to get drunk, they 
would be disgraced among their neighbours ; or 
drunkenness might hurt their health or waste their 
money. Again, some people hate their brethren, 
and would be glad to see them dead, but dare not 
kill them, for fear of being hanged. Many ladies 
will not scold and quarrel because they are afraid of 
being called vulgar, and so on. God can see all 
these things. We can hide nothing from him. 
" For the word of God is quick and powerful, and 
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the 
22 



254 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

joints and marrow ; and is a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart. Neither is there any crea- 
ture that is not manifest in his sight ; but all things 
are naked and opened unto the e3^es of Him with 
whom we have to do." Heb. iv. 12, 13. 

Little Miss Margaret looked grave ; and as the 
nurse thought that she had said enough for one time, 
she bade Tommy shut the Bible; and when they 
had sung a hymn, and prayed, they went to bed. 

Had you seen Miss Margaret the next day, going 
out with the nurse in such spirits to milk the cows, 
and helping her to pare the apples for the pudding, 
and laying the napkin and knives and forks for din- 
ner, 30U would not have thought that she had any 
remembrance at all of what her nurse had said on 
the preceding night ; yet she had a clear remem- 
brance of it, and could give the nurse an exact ac- 
count of their discourse when they came to read 
and talk again at night. 

"Nurse," said Miss Margaret, "you told me 
yesterday that we are all by nature sinners. I 
thought about what you said in the night, when I 
was awake, and I believe that your account is true 
enough ; for, as to myself, I think there is no good 
at all in my heart, though my mamma has taken 
such pains with me." 

Nurse. Well, my love, I am glad to hear you 
say so. As you get bigger, and look more into 
yourself, you will, by the grace of God, discover 
more and more of the wickedness of your heart ; 
'• for the heart of man is deceitful above all things, 
and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jer. 
xvii. 9. And when once you are made acquainted 



THE CATECHISM. 255 

with your own heart, you will never strive to do any- 
thing good without divine help. 

Margaret. But will God give me his help ? 

Nurse. The beginning of true religion, my dear, 
is this ; to know that we are, by nature, born in sin, 
and the children of wrath, as you are taught in the 
Catechism ; and that we cannot save ourselves and 
get to heaven by anything we can do ; and the next 
thing is, to look for One who is able and willing to 
save us. Do you know, my dear, who that person 
is who came down from heaven to die for us } 

Margaret. The Lord Jesus Christ died for us. 

Nurse. You are right, my dear. God the Son 
took upon him the body of a man, and died upon 
the cross for the sins of the world ; and there is no 
way by which sinners can be forgiven but thi'ough 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his precious 
blood for us. Believe in this glorious Redeemer, my 
dear child, and your past sins will be forgiven you. 
Trust in him, and call upon him, and you will re- 
ceive power to do well ; for as he promised in the 
covenant of baptism, he will give you strength to 
keep his commandments, by sending his Holy 
Spirit into your heart; under whose influence your 
heart will pas^ through a happy change, being filled 
with the love of God and taught to hate every kind 
of sin. 

When the nurse had done speaking, they sang a 
hymn, and prayed, and went to bed. 

Miss Margaret stayed all the summer and autiunn 
with her nurse ; and it pleased God, after a time, to 
restore her health, although she had one or two 
severe fits of ilhiess during her abode in the country. 



256 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

The good woman took every opportunity, when she 
thought Miss Margaret would attend to her, of set- 
ting before her the very great love of God to us sin- 
ners ; often reminding her, that when w^e had ruined 
ourselves, Jesus Christ came down from heaven, and 
bore our sins in his own body on the cross, in order 
to save us from everlasting misery. She also related 
many excellent things which the servants of God had 
been enabled to do, both in these and former days — 
and that through faith in his name ; by which, more- 
over, they had been purified from sin, and enabled 
to walk steadfastly in his holy ways. 

There was no great change to be seen in Miss, 
notwithstanding all the pains which her nurse took 
with her, for the first two or three months of her 
visit : she was just as wild and mischievous, and as 
little inclined to good, as ever. But it pleased God, 
after one of those severe attacks which I have men- 
tioned, to manifest a great alteration in her manner 
of behaving ; insomuch that her nurse began to 
hope that a real change had been effected in her 
heart, and that, by a simple but true faith, her dear 
young lady w^as growing in grace. 

Almost the first sign which the nurse perceived of 
this change was that the little girl used very often 
to get up stairs, by her bedside, to read her Bible 
and to pray ; and she was not so much for talking 
and boasting, and putting herself forward, as she 
used to be ; but seemed thoughtful how to please 
other people, as if she were the worst and lowest in 
the company ; showing much willingness to do any- 
thing, however mean the office, for any person. 

One day there came in a poor woman, who lived 



THE CATECHISM. 257 

close by, to ask the nurse to get a thorn out of her 
foot. The nurse said, " Indeed, neighbour, I fear 
I cannot do it, for my eyes are become dim of 
hue." 

" But mine are not," said Miss Margaret ; so down 
on her knees she went, taking out the thorn, and 
binding up the poor woman's foot with a bit of fine 
rag. And when the poor woman began to say that 
it was a shame for a young lady like Miss Margaret 
to do such things for so poor a woman, Margaret 
whispered to her nurse, " Don't let her say any more 
of this, for I am too well acquainted with my own 
unworthiness to hear such compliments with any 
pleasure." 

Another time, there was a poor woman in one of 
the cottages close by who had twins born ; the poor 
woman had but few clothes, even for one child ; but 
when it pleased God to send her two, she was quite 
at a loss what to do. 

The nurse went over to her every day, and did all 
she could to assist her. She also looked out some 
linen, which she cut up into little caps and frocks ; 
but she could not make them, as her eyes were so in- 
different. " What shall I do," said the nurse, " for I 
cannot see to make these caps, even with my specta- 
cles on V 

" But perhaps Miss Margaret could," said Tommy. 

Miss Margaret was rather vexed when she heard 
what the boy said, for of all things in the world she 
hated sewing ; feeling a consciousness, at the same 
time, that she ought to do what she could for the 
poor babies. She knew what was right, and wished 
to do it, but she found in herself a law, that, " when 
22* R 



25 S STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

she would do good, evil was present with her." 
Rom. vii. 21. 

She sat, for a while, quite silent : at last, rising 
from her seat, she went up stairs. Some time after- 
ward, the nurse going to the foot of the stairs, to 
fetch something that was standing there, she heard 
Margaret praying, and could distinguish these words 
of her prayer: "O Lord God, for thy dear Son's 
sake, help me to overcome this wicked idleness, that 
I may willingly labour for these poor babies." 

The nurse heard no more, for she did not like to 
stand listening ; but she was much pleased when, a 
little while afterward, Margaret came down, and 
said, "Nurse, I think, perhaps, if you would just 
show me how they are to be done, that I could 
make those little caps and frocks. I can hem, and I 
can sew, and I can gather ; so I only want to have 
the things pinned for me, and I can make them." 

The nurse said, " So you can, my dear. I'll pin 
them for you, and when they are done we will take 
them over, and you shall give them to the poor little 
darlings." 

So Miss Margaret sat herself down to work on 
the nurse's little three-legged stool. It might be 
about twelve o'clock when she began to work ; and 
she finished one frock and began another that night. 
She would indeed hardly give herself time to eat 
her dinner or drink her tea. In four days, with a 
little of the nurse's help, she finished all the things. 

When she had finished them, which was on a 
Saturday, the nurse washed and ironed them ; after 
which Miss Margaret put them in a little basket, 
which the nurse had brought her one day when she 



THE CATECHISM. 259 

came from market, putting some rose leaves over 
them, together with a little bag of halfpence in one 
corner of the basket, ready against the next day ; 
for the nurse said, that they should go the next day, 
after church, to take it to the poor woman. 

When she had put all her basket in order, she 
brought it to her nurse, and said, "See, nurse, how 
pretty all these things look ; and I thank God that 
he gave me power to overcome my wicked idleness." 
She then told her nurse how she had prayed to God 
for assistance to overcome this sin of idleness. 

"God has pleased, my dear," said the nurse, "to 
show you the way of holiness ; give glory therefore 
to him, my dear child, for it is the Lord who hath 
made you to differ from your former self. And now, 
from this time, I trust, my dear child, you will never 
seek to do anything in your own strength, but en- 
deavour to overcome all sin by diligent and frequent 
prayer. 'If a son shall ask bread of any of you 
that is a father, wall he give him a stone.? or if he 
ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent.? or 
if he shall ask an ^'g^^ will he offer him a scorpion } 
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your hea- 
venly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
him.?'" Luke xi. 11-13. 

But I shall make my story too long. It would be 
gun-fire before I had done if I were to tell you how 
many times Miss Margaret strove, by prayer, to 
conquer her evil tempers while she stayed with my 
aunt ; and how greatly changed she was, by God's 
grace, before she returned to her mother's house. 

Mrs. Green's was not a religious family, neither 



26o STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

could Mrs. Green ever be brought to a rig'bt notion 
of religion ; for ber love of tbe world, and of ber 
making a figure among ber neigbbours, was always 
tbe bindrance. But sbe could easily perceive tbe 
cbange tbat bad taken place in Margaret ; for Marga- 
ret remembered wbat ber nurse bad taugbt ber, and 
endeavoured to seek by prayer, tbrougb ber gracious 
Redeemer, strengtb and power to do well. And as 
sbe grev/ up, tbere was not in all our town a young 
woman, bigb or low, wbo could be compared to 
Miss Margaret Green. Sbe was a constant cburch- 
goer, botb Sundays and weekdays ; very neat in ber 
dress, but wearing no finery ; constantly visiting tbe 
poor and sick, working for tbem, reading to tbem, 
and praying w^Itb tbem : sbe was also a teacber of 
little cblldren, and the most dutiful cbild to ber 
parents tbat could be In tbe world. Now all tbese 
good works were tbe fruits, not tbe foregoers, of ber 
earnest and diligent prayer ; for a young woman 
wbo lived at Mr. Green's, as bousemald, told me, 
tbat after Miss Margaret's return from tbe country, 
sbe never passed a day witbout retiring often to 
pray and to read tbe Bible ; and tbat sbe often used 
to bear ber singing bymns and psalms in ber room, 
wbile ber motber and tbe rest of tbe family were 
visiting some of their gay neigbbours. Many of 
our town called ber a "Methodist;" but the poor 
people used to say they w^isbed more were like her. 
The last I heard of her, was, tbat sbe was married 
to the clergyman of our parish, a pious young man, 
and one wbo loved her for her excellent qualifica- 
tions. 



STORY XXIII 

On the LorcVs Prayer. 




T was the cold weather again before Mary 
came to stay any time with her godmother 
Browne ; but her mother then being sent 
for, to wait upon a lady who was very sick, Mary, 
according to custom on these occasions, was sent to 
Mrs. Browne. The morning after she came to her 
godmother, having a cold, Mrs. Browne allowed her 
to lie in bed till parade was almost over ; so that 
when Sergeant Browne came in to his breakfast, 
she was but just dressed, and was kneeling down at 
the foot of her little cot, saying her prayers ; and, 
whether she was in a hurry for her breakfast, or 
how it was, I know not, but she was gabbling over 
the Lord's Prayer, as fast as if she had been saying 
it for a wager. " Do but hear that girl," said the 
sergeant to his wife, while he was pulling off his 
sash and belt, "how she runs over her prayers this 
morning. I must have a little talk with her upon it 
by and by." 

"Do," says Mrs. Browne, "for it is a sad, wicked 
custom to repeat prayers after that manner." 

Soon after, Mrs. Browne said to her husband, 

261 



262 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"I am afraid, my dear, you must go without your 
white loaf this morning, for the baker has not 
brought it." 

Now the sergeant loved a piece of white bread : 
however he said, "It can't be helped, my dear; I 
wish I may never be put to a worse shift than be 
forced to eat brown bread instead of wliite." So he 
sat down to the table, and was cutting himself a 
slice of the ration bread ; when, all at once, laying 
down the loaf and the knife, "I don't know yet," 
said he, "that I shall be forced to eat brown bread 
this morning ; I think I may contrive to get a white 
loaf still. Mary, my lass, look out, and see if the 
colonel is on the parade yet. He was there when I 
came away, talking with our captain." 

"Yes, godfather," said Mary, "he is; and there 
are two or three more officers with him." 

Sergeant Browne. Well then, Mary, do you run 
to him, and tell him that we want a white loaf for 
breakfast ; and desire him, when he goes home, to 
send me one : and tell him, I should not care if he 
were to send me a cold fowl and some slices of 
ham along with it. 

Mary opened her eyes and mouth as wide as she 
could on hearing these words ; and Mrs. Browne 
herself set down the tea-pot ; for though she was 
pretty well acquainted with her husband's ways, she 
w^as quite at a loss to know what he was driving at 
now. 

"Do you hear, lass.?" said the sergeant, looking 
very grave. "Run, I say, to the colonel, and desire 
him to send me a white loaf." 

"Godfather!" said Mary : "godfather!" 



THE CATECHISM. 263 

Sergeant Browne. Don't stand there, child, cry- 
ing, " Godfather, godfather !" but run : I want my 
breakfast. Wife, pour out the tea, that it may be 
cool by the time the loaf comes. 

Mary now could hold no longer ; but she cried 
out, " Why, godfather, if I did not know that you 
have no such customs, because you fear God, I should 
fancy that you had been drinking this morning, like 
Dick Smith of the Grenadiers, who was drunk one 
day before gun-fire." 

" Drunk !" repeated the sergeant ; "do I look as 
if I were drunk, Mary.?" 

Mary. No, you don't look as if you were ; but 
then, you ask me to do such a very odd thing ! 

"What odd thing?" said Sergeant Browne. 

" Why," said Mary, " to go to the colonel, to ask 
for a white loaf and a cold fowl and ham. Why, I 
dare not even ask such things of our captain, nor of 
any of the officers. But the colonel is such a great 
man ! I never spoke to him in all my life." 

Sergeant Browne. But I suppose you would not 
be afraid of speaking to him. 

Mary. Indeed, but I should, godfather ; and I 
don't think, if you were to punish me ever so se- 
verely, that I could go on parade and ask him for a 
loaf and a cold fowl. I should think you were jok- 
ing, only you look so very grave. 

Sergeant Browne. Joking, child ! What makes 
you think I am joking? I have heard you speak to 
One who is a thousand and a million times greater 
than our colonel, and ask for all manner of good 
things from him, without seeming to have the least 
fear upon you whatever ; so I very naturally thought 



264 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

you wo -lid have no manner of objection to go on 
parade, and ask the colonel for a loaf. 

Mary. Why, godfather, you puzzle me more and 
more. I cannot think what you are about this morn- 
ing. I never spoke to anybody in my life so great as 
our colonel, that I know of; and as to asking for all 
manner of good things, I never ask for anything that 
I can help. My mother has forbid me to ask for 
things ; she sa3's that it is wrong. 

" As to its being wrong to ask for things," said the 
sergeant, " that depends upon what person you ask 
them of. We are not to be asking and craving from 
every one ; but there is One of whom we are com- 
manded to ask, and from whom we have a promise 
that if we do ask we shall receive : ' Ask, and it 
shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, 
and it shall be opened unto you.' " Matt. vii. 7. 

Mary. But, godfather, who is this great person 
that I ask so many good things of.? I cannot think 
what you mean this morning ; you quite puzzle 
me. 

" Think a little," said the sergeant ; " who have 
you been speaking to, and asking favours of, this 
very morning.'"' 

Mary. Why, I have not spoken to anybody, but 
you and my godmother ; and surely you are not 
greater than the colonel. 

" Well," sa3's the sergeant, " I suppose you don't 
mean to go for the white loaf, so we may as well eat 
what we have for breakfast. Sit down, child, and 
I must have some talk upon this matter with you by 
and by." 

All breakfast-time Mary could think of nothing 



THE CATECHISM. 265 

but what her godfather had been talking of; and 
after breakfast she would hardly give him time to 
settle some accounts which he had to make straight, 
before she was begging and entreating him to tell 
her what he meant by the great person of whom she 
was not afraid to ask favours. 

" I will now explain this matter," said the ser- 
geant (as he wiped his pen and put it into a Europe 
leather case which he always carried about him), 
" and make you understand, if I can, Mary, what I 
was driving at this morning, when I told you to ask 
the colonel for a white loaf. But, first, you must 
recollect what you were about when I came in from 
parade." 

Mary. Was not I saying my prayers, godfather.? 

" Right," says the sergeant ; " and what prayer 
did you use ?" 

Mary. The Lord's Prayer, I think ; for I was in 
a hurry, and had not time to say any more. 

Sergeant Browne. In a hurry, were you, child.'' 
I thought as much. And pray whose words are 
those you were repeating after such an expeditious 
manner.? 

Mary. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ. He 
taught this prayer to his disciples ; I know that. 

" And pray," says the sergeant, " to what person 
were you speaking when you repeated that prayer 
after such a fashion as you did this morning.?" 

Mary coloured, and said, '^ Now, godfather, I 
know what you meant this morning when you said 
there was One a thousand and a million of times 
greater that our colonel that I was not afraid to speak 
to — that person is God." 
23 



266 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"You have it !" said the sergeant. "When I 
came in this morning, you were speaking to the 
Almighty Lord God, and asking all kind of favours 
of him, in a manner more disrespectful and careless 
than you would use to one of j^our fellow-creatures, 
who is made of dust like yourself. You were quite 
surprised when I desired you to go and ask a little 
favour of our colonel, and fancied, as well as you 
might, that I was scarcely in my right reason for 
putting 3^ou upon such a thing. You had, however, 
none of this fear w^ien you were speaking to God ; 
but could gabble over the holy words, v/hich were 
put together by our blessed Saviour, without any 
manner of dread or awe upon your mind." 

" Godfather," said Mary, " I have done wrong ;" 
and her eyes were filled with tears in a moment. 

" Enough, my lass, enough," said the sergeant, 
putting his hand upon her head ; " I trust thou hast 
learned a lesson this day for which thou mayest be 
the better all thy life. Thou hast learned to suspect 
thine own heart even in its best duties. The Bible 
tells us that our best works are filthy rags, and that 
our prayers cannot be accepted but through the 
merits of our Redeemer. We fear our fellow-crea- 
tures, who are but as grass or like the flower of the 
field, and we forget to give honour to the Lord our 
Maker, as the Prophet Isaiah says : ' Who art thou, 
that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, 
and of .the son of man which shall be made as grass ; 
and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched 
forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the 
earth .^' Isaiah li. 12, 13. Wife," added the sergeant, 
" I wish you would, at your leisure, make Mary 



THE CATECHISM. 267 

learn those verses which I have just repeated. They 
were favourite verses of poor Sergeant Cooper's ; 
and I remember he pointed them out to me one 
Sunday evening, when we were on guard together 
on Gibraltar rock. Of all the men I ever knew, 
young or old, Sergeant Cooper was the man who 
seemed, at all times, most sensible of the presence 
of God; in barracks — at church — on sentry — on 
board ship — on parade — it was all one ; that man 
had God always present with him." 

So Mrs. Browne made Mary learn those verses, 
according to her husband's desire ; and, moreover, 
she took occasion, while Mary remained with her 
that time, to examine her, from day to day, about 
the Lord's Prayer ; endeavouring to make her un- 
derstand it in some tolerable degree. And this she 
did from a conviction that it is no uncommon thing 
for people to repeat that prayer every day of their 
lives, once or twice, or oftener, from their childhood 
to their old age, without once thinking what the 
meaning of it may be. For the benefit, therefore, 
of such persons as wish to understand that prayer, I 
shall repeat what passed between Mary and Mrs. 
Browne on the subject at this time, and on such 
other occasions as it was brought forward. 

Mrs. Browne. My dear Mary, can you tell me 
■why it is the duty of everybody to pray } 

Mary. Because we have nothing which does not 
come from God. He made us, and he gave us all 
the things which we possess. 

Mrs. Browne. Suppose that God was to take 
away his support from us for a moment ; what would 
become of us.'' 



268 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mary. We should die, godmother, and go to 
nothing. 

Mrs. Browne. Is it good of God to let us pray 
to him, and to hearken to us when we pray? 

Mary. Yes, godmother, very good. 

Mrs. Browne. What directions did the Lord 
Jesus Christ give us about praying? 

Mary. He said, " When ye pray, use not vain 
repetitions." Matt. vi. 7. 

Mrs. Browne. Did you ever see the black 
Hindoo people saying their prayers ? 

Mary. Yes, godmother ; I have seen them stand- 
ing almost up to their chins in the river, repeating 
their prayers as fast as they could gabble them over, 
and looking about them all the time at everything 
that passed by. 

Mrs. Browne. Poor creatures ! they think that 
they shall be heard for their much speaking. I w^ish 
there were not some people, who call themselves 
Christians, and who ought to know better, who are, 
in this respect, too much like them. 

Then Mrs. Browne asked Mary the beginning of 
the Lord's Prayer. 

Mary. It begins thus, godmother : " Our Father, 
which art in heaven." 

Mrs. Brow7ze. My grandmother used to say to 
me, " Before you speak to any person, child, always 
consider who the person is, whether younger or older, 
whether greater or less than yourself; for though we 
ought to honour all men — that is, to be civil and kind 
to every one — yet what is due to one is not due to 
all ; and it would be ridiculous to speak in the same 
manner to an old gentleman and a young lad. How 



THE CATECHISM. 269 

much more then should we, before we speak to God 
in our prayers, consider his greatness, his power, and 
his goodness, that w^e may not venture to speak to 
him in a disrespectful way. We cannot know much 
about God ; but we know from the Bible as much 
as is necessary to us in this world ; and when we go 
to heaven we have a promise that we shalKsee him 
face to face, and see and understand all his glorious 
providences and works." 

Then Mrs. Browne said to Mary, " What is the 
first thing which the Bible teaches us about God .^" 

Mary. The first chapter in the Bible teaches us 
that God made all things. 

Mrs. Browjte. True, my dear : " By the word 
of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the 
host of them by the breath of his mouth. Let all 
the earth fear the Lord ; let all the inhabitants of the 
world stand in awe of him ; for he spake, and it was 
done ; he commanded, and it stood fast." Psalm 
xxxiii. 6, 8, 9. Now, He that could make all the 
things which we see, and is able, after he has made 
them, to keep them all in their places, and save them 
from falling to nothing, must be great and powerful 
beyond all we can imagine. 

Mary. And yet, godmother, we often feel more 
afraid of making one of our fellow-creatures angry 
than of offending God. 

Mrs. Browne. That is because our hearts are 
bad, my child. The sinfulness of our hearts makes 
us so stupid that we cannot even have any proper 
thoughts of God without divine grace. Tell me, 
Mary, how we are directed to address God in the 
Lord's Prayer ? 
2n '^ 



270 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mary. " Our Father, which art in heaven." 

Mrs. Brozvne. God may be called the Father of 
all men, because he made all men ; but to whom is 
he more particularly a Father ? 

Mary. To good people, godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. Good people, my dear.? — we are 
none of us good, that is, before God. 

Mary. I mean Christian people whose hearts are 
changed, and who love the Lord Jesus Christ.'* 

Mrs. Browne. In what way has God shown his 
very great love for his children } 

Mary. Oh ! I know the answer to that very 
well : " God so loved the world that he gave his 
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 
iii. 16. 

Mrs. Browne. Where is our Father } 

Mary. In heaven. 

Mrs. Browne. God, my dear, is a Spirit, and he 
is present everywhere, but he is said to be in heaven 
particularly, because there he shows the glory of his 
majesty in the presence of his angels, and of the 
spirits of just men made perfect. " Whither shall I 
go from thy Spirit.? or whither shall I flee from thy 
presence } If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there ; 
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the 
uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand 
lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Psalm 
cxxxix. 7-10. 

This was as much as passed between Mrs. Browne 
and Mary about the Lord's Prayer in one day ; for 
Mrs. Browne, well knowing the weakness and giddi- 



THE CATECHISM. 



271 



ness of children, seldom tired them out by talking 
too long with them upon serious subjects. But the 
next time they were alone together and at leisure 
she gave her some further instruction upon the Lord's 
Prayer, which I shall relate in my next chapter. 




STORY XXIV. 

<•<■ Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdo7n come, thy will be 
done on earth as it is in heaven?'' 




HE next morning, just after Mrs. Browne 
and her husband had finished their break- 
fast, there came a man bringing a letter for 
Mrs. Browne from one Mrs. Grove. Now this Mrs. 
Grove was a townswoman of Mrs. Browne's, and 
had come to this country when quite young, I beHeve 
as a waiting-maid upon some lady ; and here she had 
become acquainted with Mr. Grove, a very worthy 
young man, a kind of steward, or factor, to a rich 
indigo-planter in those parts. Mr. Grove was not a 
rich man, but he had as much as he wished for ; and 
desired no better than to live quietly wnth his wife 
and family, and to serve God in peace. He was 
very glad of such a wife as the one he had met with, 
for she was a modest, pious young woman, and had 
received, for her station, a good education. They 
had been married about eight years, and had two 
children. They lived quite in a wild country, about 
four or five 'miles from the cantonments, and Mrs. 
Browne, since the regiment had been in those parts, 
had, I think, been twice to see them ; and now this 
letter was come to invite Mrs. Browne to visit them 
272 



THE CATECHISM. 273 

again for a few days, saying that if she would come 
Mr. Grove would send a trusty servant the next 
morning, before sunrise, with a convenient hackery 
and bullocks, to bring her over. 

" I would have you go, by all means," said the 
sergeant, as soon as he had read the letter ; " and I 
only wish I could make one of the party ; but as 
that cannot be, I would have you to take Mary along 
with you, if her father and mother will give leave. 
It will be a pretty change for her." 

" Oh ! I am sure," cried Mary, " that my father 
and mother will let me go. I will run over now to 
my father's barrack to ask him." 

Mrs. Browne. What, all through the sun, child.? 

Mary. It is not hot, godmother. 

" To set you at ease, Mary," says Sergeant Browne, 
" I'll step over myself." 

So the sergeant went, and he got this answer from 
Sergeant Mills : " Mary may go anywhere with her 
godmother Browne ; and her mother, I am sure, will 
say the same." 

So Mary and Mrs. Browne busied themselves all 
day in getting ready ; and before gun-fire the next 
morning the hackery was waiting ready for them at 
the barrack-door. The sun was not risen when Mrs. 
Browne and Mary set out ; and Mary was ready to 
leap out of the hackery for downright gladness. 

From the barracks up to the church, by which 
they were to pass, the ground rose all the way, and 
the road on each side was set with trees. The birds 
were scarcely beginning to move in the branches of 
the trees, and there was not a servant, excepting the 
chockedaurs^ stirring about any house in the neigh- 



374 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

bourhood, it was so early. When the coach came 
to the gate of the church compound^ which is, as I 
before said, at the top of the hill, the bullock-driver 
stopped to put something right about the carriage, 
and Mary was surprised to hear the voices of men 
singing in the church. So they listened, and heard 
this verse distinctly : 

" Holy and reverend is the name 
Of our Eternal King; 
Thrice holj, Lord, the angels cry; 
Thrice holv, let us sing." 

"Oh, godmother," said Mary, '"how sweet that 
singing is ! Who can these people be who have 
come so early to praise God ?" 

Mrs. Brow7ie. Why, this is a halting-morning, 
my dear ; and I dare say Mr. King and some of our 
good men, with James Law at the head of them, 
have taken this opportunity for an early service. I 
have heard of their doing so before on a halting- 
morning, when the men are off duty, and can find 
time for this privilege. 

Just as Mrs. Browne was speaking, two young 
men, genteelly dressed and well mounted, rode by ; 
and as they passed, Mrs. Browne and Mary heard 
the one ask the other what that singing was, to 
which the other replied in very profane and wicked 
language, the purport oP' which was to ridicule 
psalm-singing ; but I shall not repeat what he said. 

By this time the driver had set off again, and 
Mrs. Browne remarked to Mary, " While we were 
stopping at yonder gate, which w^as not five minutes, 
we had an opportunity of observing how differently 



THE CATECHISM. 275 

the children of God and the children of Satan em- 
ploy the early part of the day : the children of God 
arise betimes, to praise their heavenly Father ; and 
the children of Satan are scarcely out of their beds 
before they begin to curse and to blaspheme. The 
wicked world despises these holy men who are met 
together in the house of their God to praise his 
name ; but in the sight of their heavenly Father, 
they are very precious, and so is every person who 
loves his name and seeks to honour it. We are 
taught in the Lord's Prayer to say, ' Hallowed be 
thy name.'* Do you know, my dear, what is signified 
by that expression ?" 

Mary. Yes, godmother : it means to keep any- 
thing holy. 

Mrs. Browne. Whose name ought we to mark 
as infinitely great and holy, my dear.? 

Mary. The name of God. 

Mrs. Browne. We ought not only to mark the 
name of God as a great and holy name, but also to 
reverence everything belonging to him ; his house, 
his children, and everything that is his. 

At that instant, just at the turning of a wall, be- 
hind which were some very tall trees, a large ele- 
phant, with bells, met the hackery in which Mrs. 
Browne and Mary were sitting ; when the bullocks 
turned aside and jolted the hackery., so that Mary, 
although she was not frightened, could not help 
catching hold of Mrs. Browne's arm, and squeezing 
it well. "Oh! heavens!" said she, when the ele- 
phant was passed, "what a great creature! I 
thought the bullocks, in their fright, would have 
jolted us into the ditch." 



276 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

A few minutes afterward, a stout, tall fakeer^ 
with an immense beard, and long matted hair hang- 
ing over his face and down his back, his whole body 
being bedaubed with mud, came up to the side of 
the hackery^ to ask for some pice : " Oh ! mercy, 
mercy! you ugly creature!" cried Mary. "I have 
nothing for you. You are as able to work as I am." 

"Mary," said Mrs. Browne, "you bring one of 
my own faults to my mind, very often this morning." 

"What's that, godmother?" said Mary. "I am 
sure I don't think you have many faults." 

" Perhaps not such as you, my dear, are able to 
distinguish," replied Mrs. Browne, "because you 
are young, and I am old ; and the faults of old and 
of young people are often very different. But the 
fault which I now think of, is a very bad custom I 
have of calling out upon an}'^ surprise, ' Oh ! hea- 
vens !' ' Oh ! mercy !' ' Oh ! Lord !' and such like 
words. I often catch myself in this fault, and am 
very angry with myself for it." 

Mary. Why, is there any harm in those words, 
godmother ? 

Mi's. Browne. To be sure there is, my dear ; for 
if these words mean anything at all, they are an 
invocation of God ; and, being generally used in a 
light way, are very profane. We should never, as I 
said before, speak of anything belonging to God, 
but with the greatest respect — Hallowed be his 
name. 

Mary. Godmother, I will try to leave off saying 
these words. 

Mrs. Browne. And pray to God to give you 
grace to keep his name holy. 



THE CATECHISM. 277 

By this time they were come to the great bazar^ 
for they were obliged to pass through the very heart 
of the great bazar to get into the road leading to 
Mr., Grove's house ; and, indeed, it was a part of 
the bazar ^ which, lying furthest from the barracks, 
Mary had never been in before ; and perhaps there 
were not many persons in the barracks who had 
been there, especiall}- of the women and children. 
Here lived most of the rich natives, and they had 
adorned the place after their own heathenish fancies 
and fashions. 

As it is probable that many persons may read this 
story, who have never seen an Indian bazar^ for the 
satisfaction of such, I shall here attempt a descrip- 
tion of these places, that they may be enabled to 
form some notion of the difference between a village 
in Europe (however poor it may be), in which the 
true God is worshiped, and where there is a church 
and a clergyman, and a town or village, or bazar^ 
as we call it, in a heathen land, wdiere the devil is 
their god, and the people know no other. And I 
write this description, trusting that every Christian 
reader of it will thereby be led to thank God, that 
he was not born in Sodom, in Babylon, in India, or 
in any other heathen town or country. Now as he 
that has seen one of these bazars ma}^ be said to 
have seen them all, since they are mostly built after 
the same fashion, I shall describe the one through 
which Mrs. Browne and Mary passed in their 
hackery as a sample of all the rest. 

The houses in the street were chiefly built of 
mud, bedaubed with cow-dung, having no windows 
toward the streets, and doors so low that a child of 
24 



278 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

ten years old could scarcely go in without stooping ; 
and as to a chimney, there was no such thing. The 
streets were so narrow in most places, that, as the 
old saying is, two men might shake hands across 
the way ; and before every door there were filthy 
gutters and puddles, which were never cleaned, 
except by some chance shower of rain. The houses 
of the richer people were but little more convenient 
than those of the poor, only that they were much 
loftier, some being raised to the height of three or 
four stories ; they had also little windows toward the 
top, which, however, a man could scarcely put his 
head through ; with here and there a balcony or 
railed gallery on the outside, in which the master of 
the house, in an evening, is accustomed to sit and 
smoke his pipe. 

But what the people esteem as the chief orna- 
ments of these streets are their mosques d^Vidi pagodas ^ 
or temples of their idols. The mosques are the 
Mussulmaun's places of worship, and are pretty 
edifices enough without, being built with two round 
high towers ; but for the most part, they are all out- 
side show, since there is neither furniture, books, 
nor anything else in them. 

The pagodas are the places wherein the idolaters 
keep their false gods and go to worship them. 
They are dark and frightful buildings, surrounded 
by high walls, both within and without set round 
with horrid shapes and figures of devils, some 
painted on the walls in flaming colours, some carved 
in wood, and some in stone ; but all very frightful 
to behold, and worthy of Satan's head to invent. 
Now what passes in these pagodas I cannot pre- 



THE CATECHISM. 279 

tend to say : but I have been told by such persons 
as should know that there are things done in them 
not fit to be named. 

Now, although it was yet scarcely daybreak, the 
bazar was all in an uproar when Mrs. Browne and 
Mary passed through it. The streets were full of 
drunkards reeling home from their midnight revels 
— fierce and bold women quarrelling with their 
neighbours — naked children screaming and fighting 
— miserable infants crying — dogs barking — bells 
tinkling from the pagodas — tinn-tums — horns — 
creaking wheels — men beating their cattle — wicked 
cursings and oaths — cries of beggars — groans of the 
sick, with confusion and every kind of evil work. 

" Oh !" said Mar}^ to Mrs. Brow^ne, " I wish we 
were well out of this wicked bazar.^' 

Mrs. Browne. We think the barracks a bad 
place ; but, compared with this, it is like heaven ; 
and for this reason, that the worst of people who 
come out of a Christian country have some little no- 
tion of God and of decency ; but these poor heathens 
have none. 

Mary. Are all places where God is not known as 
wicked as this? 

Mrs. Browne. The answer to this, my dear, is 
best made from the Bible, where those who will not 
know God are thus described : " And even as they 
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God 
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those 
things which are not convenient ; being filled with 
all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous- 
ness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, de- 
ceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, 



28o STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of e\\\ things, 
disobedient to parents, without understanding, cove- 
nant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, 
unmerciful." Romans i. 28-31. 

Now Mary and Mrs. Browne could talk together 
no more till they w^ere quite out of the bazar ; for 
what with the noise in the streets, and the jolting of 
their hackery^ with the scolding of the driver, they 
could scarcely hear one word wdiich each other said. 
Through this hateful place the}' thought the passage 
long ; and truly glad were they to get fairly rid of 
the discordant noises, the unpleasant sights and 
filthy smells of the bazar^ and to find themselves 
coming out upon a pleasant open country, lying 
westward. 

The sun was, indeed, risen, when they left the 
bazar ; but being to their backs, it did not trouble 
them ; while the country before them appeared as 
green and pleasant as a garden ; for it was now the 
finest part of the year, the end of the cold season. 
Mrs. Browne showed Mary many groves of fine 
trees, which she told her w^ere mang-oe-topes^ besides 
wdiich were wells of water dug for the convenience 
of travellers, w^ith corn-fields between the groves of 
trees ; altogether producing a most agreeable ap- 
pearance, particularly on a comparison with the 
frightful bazar which I have just now described. 

" Oh !" said Mary, " how could one believe, if 
one had not seen it, that such a pretty country as 
this could be so near that dirty, horrible bazar I" 

" This shows, my dear Mary," says Mrs. Browne, 
" that it is the vile, sinful dispositions of mankind 
which make this world so full of ugly sights as it is. 



THE CATECHISM. 28 1 

Wherever sin Is, there is filth and confusion, and 
every kind of abomination. If Satan could have 
reigned in the garden of Eden itself, he w^ould have 
made it uglv ; but we have, thank God ! a promise in 
the Bible that a time shall come v^hen the king- 
doms of this world shall become the kingdoms of 
our Lord and his Christ." 

Mary. What, will there be such a time as that? 
I never knew that before. I thought that the Lord 
Jesus Christ would rule and have his whole will ac- 
complished in heaven, but I never understood that 
in this world it would ever be so. 

Mrs. Browne. You say, every day in your 
prayers, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven." What do these words 
mean.? 

Mary. Why, godmother, I don't know that I 
ever, in all my life, thought about their meaning. 

"Indeed, Mary," says Mrs. Browne, "we have 
reason to blame ourselves much in this matter. We 
ought to apply our minds to know the meaning of 
every word we use in prayer ; and, above all, the 
Lord's Prayer. When we pray for the kingdom of 
God to come, and for the will of God to be done on 
earth as it is in heaven, we pray that the time may 
very soon come when the true God shall be rightly 
worshipped through all the world, and his holy law 
be kept pure and unbroken among us, as it is kept 
in heaven." 

Mary. Well, those words are plain enough, to 
be sure ; but I never understood them before. 

Mrs. Browne. When God made Adam and Eve 
at first, they were holy and happy, and they had no 

24 "^ 



283 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

God or king except the Lord our God ; but when 
they rebelled against God by eating the forbidden 
fruit, they put themselves under the power of the 
devil ; and, from that time, the devil, in one sense, 
became the prince of this world. Do you not re- 
member what the devil said to our Lord when he 
came to tempt him ? — " And the devil said unto him, 
all this power will I give thee and the glory of them : 
for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I 
will I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, 
all shall be thine." Luke iv. 6, 7. 

Mary. But do all the kingdoms of the world 
really belong to the devil } 

Mrs. Browne. For a time the Lord God has 
allowed him, for some mysterious reason, to have 
power ^throughout the whole world — that is, in 
the hearts of wicked men. If you were to travel 
into many countries, as I have done, Mary, you 
would find wickedness in every place, though dif- 
ferent in kind and degree. The world is filled with 
all unrighteousness. 

Mary. But that is very shocking to think of, 
godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. Yes, my dear ; and it would be 
much more so, had we not the sure promise that 
Satan's power shall come to an end ; and the time, 
I hope, is not very distant : " Then the Lord shall be 
King over all the earth : in that day shall there be 
one Lord, and his name one." Zech. xiv. 9. 

Mary. How will God's kingdom begin, god- 
mother. 

Mrs. Browfie. God's kingdom has, I hope, be- 
gun already, my dear. When our Lord Jesus 



THE CA TECH ISM. 283 

Christ came on earth, Satan lost much of his power. 
The kingdom of Christ did not begin with a show 
and an uproar, as the kingdoms of great men on 
earth do. It had, at first, a small beginning, and is 
on that account compared to a little seed which 
gradually becomes a large tree. The hearts of men 
are first changed by the power of the Holy Ghost; 
upon which they revolt from the dominion of Satan, 
and become servants of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and 
every man who is thus truly changed, endeavours, as 
circumstances and duty will permit, to convert his 
neighbour. So the kingdom of Christ grows and in- 
creases upon the earth in a silent way, and will, we 
hope, in a very few years — that is, in God's good 
time — entirely overturn the kingdom of the devil. 

Mary. Oh ! how lovely and pleasant this world 
would be if we all loved the Lord Jesus Christ ! 
There would be none of those dirty barracks, and 
bazars., and black fagodas. We might all live out 
in the fields then, in pretty houses, without any fear 
of thieves. 

Mrs. Brow7ie. Though I have not my Bible 
just where I can ge* it now, I believe I can repeat 
to you one or two texts in which that happy time is 
described. " The wilderness and the solitary place 
shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, 
and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abun- 
dantly ; and rejoice even with joy and singing : the 
glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excel- 
lency of Carmel and Sharon ; they shall see the 
glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. 
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the 
ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the 



284 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the 
dumb sing : for in the wilderness shall waters break 
out, and streams in the desert. And the parched 
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land 
springs of water : in the habitation of dragons, 
where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 
And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it 
shall be called, The way of holiness ; the unclean 
shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those : the 
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall 
go up thereon, it shall not be found there : but the 
redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of 
the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall ob- 
tain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
flee away." Isaiah xxxv. i, 3, 5-10. 

"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord ; 
and great shall be the peace of thy children." Isaiah 
liv. 13. 

" But in the last days it shall come to pass, that 
the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be es- 
tablished in the top of the. mountains, and it shall be 
exalted above the hills ; and people shall flow unto 
it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, 
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to 
the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us 
of his w^ays, and we will walk in his paths ; for the 
law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among 
many people, and rebuke strong nations afar oft'; and 
they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and 
their spears into pruning-hooks ; nation shall not lift 



THE CATECHISM. 285 

up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more. But they shall sit every man under 
his vine and under his fig tree ; and none shall make 
them afraid ; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts 
hath spoken it. For all people will walk every one 
in the name of his God, and we will walk in the 
name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." 
Micah iv. 1-5. 

By the time Mrs. Browne had repeated these 
verses, they came, by a sudden turn of the road, 
upon a place where they 4iad a near view of certain 
little cottages, before which a few cows were feeding 
by the wayside. These cottages had neat choppers^ 
and some of them wanted not small gardens, fitly 
fenced round. Hard by, upon a gentle slope, was a 
white inosque., built, as their manner is, with two 
slender round towers ; and near to the mosque were 
many trees, and a stone tank.^ full of clear water ; so 
that the place had a very pleasant appearance. 

"Well," said Mary, ^' that is pretty." 

Mrs. Browne. Yes, if that heathenish mosque 
were but turned into a Christian church. 

Mary. That would ba pleasant, indeed ; and I 
hope, in a few years, it will be so. 

Mrs. Brow72e. Let all who love God and their 
fellow-creatures, then, pray more and more earnestly 
that God's kingdom may come. 

By this time the hackery was come near to the 
houses ; but when Mrs. Browne and Mary came close 
to them, they found that they were not so pleasant as 
they at first appeared ; for the houses were sur- 
rounded with dirt, and the poor cows that lay before 
the doors were miserably thin and wretched. And 



286 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

behold, as the hackery passed, there came out of the 
houses about a score of children, both boys and girls, 
all naked, and exceedingly filthy and bold in all their 
gestures. And they followed the Jiackery to a con- 
siderable distance, shouting and bawling and using 
every vile language ; although Mary was so happ}' 
as not to understand what they said. 

" Observe, Mary," says Mrs. Browne, " how even 
yonder little village, which appeared so pretty as we 
approached it, is rendered odious by sin ; and could 
sin get into heaven itself, it would make a hell of it." 

But I have made this very long ; so I will break off 
here, and take another occasion to give you an ac- 
count of Mrs. Browne's arrival at Mr. Grove's, and 
of such things as happened there. 




STORY XXV. 



« Give us this day ozir daily bread? 




T was not seven o'clock when Mary and 
Mrs. Browne came in sight of Mr. Grove's 
house. It was built in a little valley, though 
airy enough ; and all about it was jungle^ or wild 
country, full of trees and low shrubs. Mr. Grove's 
house stood in a garden ; it was but small, yet very 
pretty; for iho: jalousies ^n&vq all of a fresh green, 
and there was a neat bamboo veraiidah round it. 
Not far from Mr. Grove's was a little village, or 
bazar ; but it brought no inconvenience to the house, 
because there was a tope of fine mangoe trees 
between. 

There was some deer, or antelopes as they are 
called, feeding among the bushes, which ran away 
when the hackery came near. Mary took them for 
goats, and said, they were the handsomest goats she 
ever saw. The trees, also, were full of young par- 
rots, hopping about ; with many wood-pigeons, or 
doves, ixnd gilaries running up the trees. 

When the hackery came up to the garden-gate, 
Mr. and Mrs. Grove came running out to receive 
Mrs. Browne and Mary, attended by their little girl 
and boy, two fine children, both of them looking 
fresh with the cold weather. So Mr. and Mrs. 

287 



288 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Grove welcomed them heartily to their house, and 
took them into the hall, where the breakfast was laid 
out. 

When Mr. Grove had given thanks, they all sat 
down, for Mrs. Browne and Mary were very hungry. 
And here Mrs. Browne could not but observe the 
difference between the behaviour of Mr. Grove's 
children and that of some children she had seen in 
the barracks ; for they sat at the table without say- 
ing one word, and took what was offered them with 
thankfulness, never asking for anything that was at 
the table ; and thus they early learned to be thankful 
and contented with what they had. 

As Mrs. Browne, and Mr. and ISIrs. Grove, sat at 
breakfast, they fell thus into discourse. Mr. Grove 
said that he and his wife had lived several years in 
that place ; and though he was not in a situation to 
gain great riches, being only manager of a gentle- 
man's estate, yet that they had enjoyed much peace, 
and had been able to bring up their children, so far, 
in the fear of God. " And though," says Mr. Grove, 
'' we have been sadly shut out from divine service 
and holy ordinances, having no church to go to, nor 
any clergyman to instruct us, yet on a Sunday, and 
sometimes on a week-day, according as business will 
allow, we meet together, and endeavour, as far as it 
is possible, to supply this grievous want." 

" Meet together !" says Mrs. Browne ; " w^ho have 
you here to meet?" 

" Why," said Mr. Grove, " there are my wife and 
two children ; and we have, in the village, two or 
three Portuguese men and women, with several 
children, who are glad to come and hear me read." 



THE CATECHISM. 289 

Mrs. Browne. And are they able to understand 
you? 

Mr. Grove. The younger sort do, I hope, pretty 
well : the elder ones, I fear, not so well as I could 
wish. But I am told that we shall soon have the 
New Testament printed in Hindoostaunie ; and, as I 
can read that language easily, I will get the book up 
as soon as it is to be had from Calcutta, when our 
readings will, I trust, be carried on to some better 
purpose than they have hitherto been.* 

After breakfast, Mr. Grove called his little girl to 
bring him a Bible. So he read a chapter, and 
prayed ; after which he went off to his business, and 
left his wife with Mrs. Browne. 

Now Mrs. Grove was, as I said before, a very 
humble, modest person, and knowing Mrs. Browne 
to be, for her station, a very clever woman, she was 
glad to learn any of her ways, particularly as to her 
management of children : and thus they spent the 
morning, till Mr. Grove returned, in a very com- 
fortable manner together. In the evening Mr. 
Grove took them out a-walking ; and when they 
came in, after tea, he read prayers again with 
them ; so that Mrs. Browne could not help saying 
she had spent as pleasant a day as ever she had done 
in her life. 

Mary slept with Mrs. Browne, in a little room 
which opened into the garden, when early in the 
morning she was awakened by the singing of the 
birds. As soon therefore as she had dressed her- 

* These Stories Avere written at a time when such fruits 
of the pious labours of the Rev. Henry Martjn and others 
were unknown in India. 

25 T 



290 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

self and said her prayers, she ran out into the 
garden. There she found the two httle children 
working in a small plot of ground which their father 
had given them, and feeding some young rabbits 
which they had in a coop ; and Mary was ready to 
help them. In this way they entertained themselves 
for about an hour, till Mr. Grove, who had been out 
to look after his servants and work-people, came in 
at the garden-gate. As soon as the little ones saw 
him, they ran to meet him, each of them seizing 
upon one of his hands, and Mary skipping after 
them. "Well," said Mr. Grove, "what have you 
to say.'^" 

"Good-morning, father — Good-morning, father, '^ 
they answered. 

"And now," said Mr. Grove, "what's to be done 
next.?" 

The little girl answered, "You must come, father, 
to help us to seek our daily bread." 

"True," said Mr. Grove: "I am glad you have 
not forgotten that." So Mr. Grove walked on toward 
the house, and all the young ones after him. 

"Daily bread!" said-Mary to herself: "that is 
breakfast, I suppose." 

Now as they came into the hall, the breakfast was 
set upon the table ; but Mr. Grove turned through 
the hall into a little room, where he kept his books 
and his accounts, and taking the little ones in with 
him, he shut the door, when reaching a Bible down 
from the shelf, he turned to a place where it was 
marked, and read a chapter. It was the second 
chapter of the First Epistle of John, a very excel- 
lent chapter, in which we are commanded to love 



THE CATECHISM. 29 1 

one another: and when he had read it, he tried to 
explain it to his Httle ones in as easy words as he 
could find. After which he knelt down, and the 
little ones by him, and he prayed with them ; and 
the words of his prayer were such as even little 
Tomm}' Grove, who was only five years old, could 
understand. This being done, he sent his two little 
ones to see if breakfast was ready, while he called 
Mary up to him, and spoke to her thus: "My dear, 
your father and mother, and Sergeant and Mrs. 
Browne, have taken great pains to make you fear 
God." 

Mary. Yes, sir, they have all taken great pains 
with me ; but I am not very good, for all that. 

Mr. Grove. I am glad to find that you are 
brought to the knowledge of your sinfulness ; and 
you ought to thank God, who has brought you so 
early to his knowledge ; but this ought, my dear, to 
make you very much in earnest to profit by every 
means of grace and instruction which he has put in 
your way. And now I wish to ask you a question. 
I saw you look very hard at me in the garden when 
the little ones said to me, " Come, father, help us to 
seek our daily bread." Tell me, my dear, what you 
thought we were going to do. 

Mary. Why, I thought, sir, that you were going 
to give the children their breakfasts. 

Mr. Grove. And do you understand now what 
we meant? 

Mary. No, I do not, for I did not see you give 
the children any bread. 

"Well," said Mr. Grove, smiling, "you shall have 
your breakfast now, and afterward I will read a 



292 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

chapter, which, I hope, will explain this matter 
to you." 

So Mary went into the hall with Mr. Grove to 
breakfast. After which, he took his Bible in his 
hand, as he had promised, and endeavoured to ex- 
plain what is meant by the expression — "Daily 
Bread." "We are directed, in the Lord's Prayer, to 
pray for ' our daily bread,' Mrs. Browne," said Mr. 
Grove: "how do you understand those words?" 

j\frs. Brow72e. Why, I once heard a sermon 
upon that subject, and have since taken these words 
to have two meanings : one, the plain meaning, 
which every child may take in ; and the other, a 
spiritual meaning. 

Mr. Grove. Well, I see, Mrs. Browne, that you 
consider these w^ords much in the light vvhich I do. 

Mr. Grove then told Mrs. Browne what had hap- 
pened in the morning, and added, " I must try if I 
can make the matter plain to this little girl's under- 
standing ; and I dare say I shall not find her so hard 
of comprehension as some that I have to teach on a 
Sunday." 

Mr. Grove then said to Mary, " Of what two 
very different parts, my dear, is a human creature 
formed?" 

Mary. The body, sir, and the soul. 

Mr. Grove. How is the body nourished and kept 
alive from day to day ? 

Mary. We are kept alive by what we eat and 
drink. 

Mr. Grove. Right, my dear : without food, our 
bodies would soon waste away and die. So, my 
dear, we are directed to pray to God, from whom 



THE CATECHISM. 293 

all good things come, to give us, day by day, such 
food as is necessary for our bodies — "Give us this 
day our daily bread." And if w^e have enough from 
day to day, w^e ought not to be looking to distant 
times, thinking, "How shall I live in such a year, 
and such a year?" seeing God has given us abun- 
dant reason to believe that he will take care of us. 

Mary. I know two verses, Sir, about being over- 
anxious for the time to come : " Take no thought 
for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall 
drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. 
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than 
raiment? Take therefore no thought for the mor- 
row ; for the morrow shall take thought for the 
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil 
thereof." Matt. vi. 25, 34. 

Mr. Grove. Well said, my dear ; you appear 
then to understand the more literal meaning of these 
words: "Give us this day our daily bread." You 
have told me what keeps our bodies from perishing — 
that is, the daily bread which we eat ; now tell me 
what it is which keeps the soul from eternal death. 

Mary made no answer, and Mr. Grove went on : 
"When God created man, he looked upon him, and 
saw that he was very good. Man was created in 
the image of God ; and through constant com- 
munion with his Creator, his soul was sustained by 
a divine kind of nourishment. But being tempted 
to sin, he separated himself from God, when eternal 
death passed upon his soul, and he became a child 
of Satan. After this, the Lord Jesus Christ, by 
dying upon the cross, redeemed us from the power 
of sin and of death, and opened a way for our 

25* 



294 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

return unto God. Yet so exceeding great is our 
natural depravity, that we cannot enter again into 
the kingdom of heaven, or enjoy communion with 
God, until we are spiritually born again — that is, 
until we are cut oft' from our father the devil, and 
united to the Lord Jesus Christ: 'Except a man be 
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' 
John iii. 3. Now, in baptism this good work is 
begun in us, but as we are poor sinners even after 
baptism, a great change in our life and character is 
necessary to our acceptance with God. We do not 
know how this change takes place, nor can we tell 
exactly the time when any man gets 'a clean heart 
and a right spirit' from God : but we soon discover 
that he is renewed and sanctified by the change in 
his behaviour. The natural man seeks to please 
himself, more than to please God and serve his 
fellow-creatures ; but the new man loves God and 
his fellow-creatures ; and tries to do the will of 
God, instead of pleasing himself. And now, my 
dear, to come to what we were talking about this 
morning — when a man is born again, and his soul 
made new, what is it that keeps his new nature 
fresh and alive.?" 

Mary. I do not know, Sir. 

Mr. Grove. You told me, just now, what it is 
that keeps the body from dying. 

Mary. It is what we eat and drink ; that is, our 
daily bread. 

Mr. Grove. And cannot you now tell me what 
that Bread is v/hich came down from heaven .? 

Mary. Oh ! I think I know now. May I show 
)'ou in the Bible, for I can't say the verses.'* 



THE CATECHISM. 295 

" Surely," said Mr. Grove, as he handed Mary his 
Bible ; and she turned to St. John vi. 31-34: " Our 
fathers did eat manna in the desert ; as it is written, 
He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then 
Jesus said unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven ; but my 
Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For 
the Bread of God is he which cometh down from 
heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said 
they unto him. Lord, evermore give us this bread." 

" Right, my child ; you are quite right," said Mr. 
Grove ; "Jesus Christ is the Bread from heaven 
which we ought to pray for, day by day ; and there 
is more upon this subject in that very chapter. The 
Lord Jesus Christ is the stay and support of Chris- 
tians. If we feed on him, we shall gather strength 
from day to day. ' Out of weakness we shall be 
made strong, and walk in the power of the Lord, 
and in his might.' " Heb. xi. 32 ; Eph. vi. 10. 

Mary. Now I understand those words — " Give 
us this day our daily bread." They have two mean- 
ings ; first, bread to eat ; and secondly, the Bread 
which came down from heaven — that is, the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

Mr. Grove. And how often should we seek this 
Bread from heaven } 

Mary. We cannot live a day without it. I know, 
if the Lord Jesus Christ takes his help from us, even 
for a minute, we shall do something wicked. 

Mr. Grove then turned to the sixteenth chapter of 
Exodus, and read the account of the Israelites receiv- 
ing manna, day by day, from heaven ; and how they 
were commanded to gather this manna every day, 



296 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

and not to leave any till the morning. " In like 
manner," said Mr. Grove, " wq ought, every day — 
day by day — to seek that heavenly nourishment from 
God, without which our new nature will faint." 

After this, Mr. Grove went to his business, and 
Mrs. Browne charged Mary to keep in mind what 
he had said to her. 

Mrs. Browne and Mary stayed several days with 
Mr. and Mrs. Grove, and the time passed away so 
pleasantly that it seemed but as one day. It was 
now, however, proper that they should think of re- 
turning home. So Mrs. Browne took leave of her 
kind friends ; very affectionately saying, as they 
parted, " If we do not meet again in this world, we 
have the blessed hope of meeting in a better." 




STORY XXVI. 

" Forgive us our trespasses^ as we forgive them that tres- 
pass against us."*^ 




HE first news which Mrs. Browne heard 
when she got home to the barracks was, 
that Sergeant-major James was appointed 
to be ensign in the regiment. " Well, I pray that it 
may be for the good of all the family," said Mrs. 
Browne to her husband, who was the person that 
told her the news ; " and who is to be the new ser- 
geant-major.?" 

" Some say one, and some say another," answered 
Sergeant Browne, not liking to trouble his wife till 
the matter was settled ; for the truth was, as he had 
been told, that it lay between himself and Sergeant 
Dawson ; and the colonel, he heard, was for him, 
but there were others who were more for vSergeant 
Dawson. 

Now, although Sergeant Browne was so careful 
not to disturb his wife's peace of mind about this 
matter, there were others as ready to tell her all about 
it. The foremost of these was Mrs. Simpson ; she 
saw Mrs. Browne coming by in the hackery^ and 
was over the way, from her own barrack, in a few 

297 



29S STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

minutes after she alighted. " So, you are come 
back, Mrs. Browne," she said. " Poor Mrs. Francis 
has not had a word to throw at a dog, as the saying 
is, ever since you went ; Mrs. Mills being away too. 
Well, and how did you leave Mrs. Grove } I sup- 
pose you have been at prayers three times a day, at 
least ; you'd have it all your own way there. And 
have you heard the news? Mrs. James, indeed, an 
officer's lady ! I have not seen her, but they tell me 
she is a foot higher already ; and she carried herself 
high enough before, every one knows. It's Miss 
Charlotte and Miss Kittj' now. And they have 
taken the bungalow^ that was the Europe shop, next 
the church, at twenty-five rupees a month ; and the 
painters and whitewashers are at work upon it now. 
So they will be in before long. Then madam will 
be a lady altogether ; and, I suppose, we poor souls 
in the barracks must not presume to speak to our old 
acquaintance." 

" Nay, nay," said Mrs. Browne, " I think you are 
mistaken, Mrs. Simpson. I am sure Mrs. James 
will use all the freedom with her old companions 
which her station will permit," 

" Oh ! you were always blind to that woman's 
faults," said Mrs. Simpson. '' Take my word for it, 
Mrs. Browne — a prouder woman than Mrs. James, 
high or low, be she what she will, never wore shoe- 
leather ; and yet, many's the time I have seen her 
at the top of a military wagon. But people, now- 
a-days — " 

Mrs. Browne. Well, I cannot say, but I always 
found her civil enough to me. 

Mrs. Simpson. Civil, in truth ! Why, if your 



THE CATECHISM. 299 

husband does not succeed to the sergeant-major's 
place, it will be all through her. How have you af- 
fronted her, Mrs. Browne? 

Mi's. Browne. What do you mean, Mrs. Simp- 
son ? I never affronted her, that I know of. 

Mrs. Simpson. Well, you know best ; but, as I 
said, if you lose the sergeant-major's place, it is 
through her, and no one else, I can tell you ; and I 
had it from one who knows all about it. You had 
our adjutant's good-will till she went and carried 
tales against you and your husband, and put it into 
his head to propose Daw^son ; and they say he will 
carry the day too, for our colonel is not well, and 
cannot see into things as he used to do. 

" And if he could, it might be no hindrance to 
Dawson," said Sergeant Browne; "for he is every 
bit as fit for the place as I am ; and fitter too, for 
aught I know. I thank you for your good-will, Mrs. 
Simpson, but 1 do not wish to trouble my wife about 
these matters. She and I are well content with what 
we have, according to the Scripture : ' For we brought 
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry 
nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us 
be therewith content.' i Tim. vi. 7, 8. And the 
rest we leave to God." 

"" Bless me, sergeant," said Mrs. Simpson, " I 
suppose, by and by, your wife must not be spoken 
to. I am sure, I came in kindness to tell her of Mrs. 
James' bad behaviour, and put her on her guard 
against such false friends ; but if folks don't know 
their friends, I cannot help it." So she walked out 
of the berth. 

Now nobody knows what Mrs. Browne thought 



300 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

of all this, for not one word did she say, good or 
bad, about it to her husband or any one else ; only 
once she said to Mrs. Francis, "Mrs. James should 
not have been so unkind to me as I am told she has 
been, for I never used her ill ; but may God turn her 
heart !" 

A few days after this, the sergeant-major's place 
was given to Sergeant Daw^son. In the afternoon of 
the same day Mrs. Browne was sitting with Mary 
at work, and having remained a long time without 
speaking. Mar}' thought to herself, '"My godmother 
looks grave ; I am very much afraid she is vexed 
about losing the sergeant-major's place, and about 
Mrs. James being so unkind ;" for Mary knew all 
about the affair. Moreover, all that Mrs. Simpson 
had reported about Mrs. James was very true — she 
had done Mrs. Browne all the ill in her power ; for 
she w^as displeased with her, and had borne ill-will 
against her ever since the day she had spoken so 
freely to her concerning the management of her 
children. 

So, as I said, while Mrs. Browme and Mary were 
sitting together, Mary was afraid that her godmother 
was not happy ; and she thought truly ; for Mrs. 
Browne had been thinking of Mrs. James' unkind- 
ness, and was tempted to be angr}^ with her. She 
wished to forgive her enemy, but found that she had 
not power of herself to do it cheerfully. She wanted 
help from God to do this great thing. She sat there- 
fore, for some time, without speaking; at length, 
seeing the child look at her, "Mary, my dear,'' she 
said, "you look hard at me — you think I don't ap- 
pear happ}'. I will tell you the reason. There is a 



THE CATECHISM. 30 1 

person who has used me ill without a cause, and I 
am strongly tempted to indulge sinful anger against 
her. I can say, truly, with St. Paul, ' I know that 
in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing ; 
for to will is present with me ; but how to perform 
that which is good I find not. For the good that I 
would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, 
that I do.' Rom. vii. 18, 19. The sin that is in me 
makes me very unhappy. Oh ! wretched creature ! 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death.?" 

Mary got up and went close to her godmother, 
and said, " Dear godmother, I am sorry to see you 
unhappy ; but would not the Lord Jesus Christ give 
you grace to forgive that person, if you were to ask 
him .?" 

Afrs. Browne. I have prayed to him, my dear 
child, many times on this very occasion ; not doubt- 
ing but he will, in his good time, return an answer to 
my prayers, and deliver me from the power of this 
sin ; and, indeed, he has so far answered my prayer 
already as to withhold me from taking any ven- 
geance, or even speaking an ill word, against the 
person who hurt me. But he sometimes hides the 
brightness of his countenance from us, and leaves us 
seemingly without comfort, that we may not forget 
to abhor ourselves, and to give him the glory when- 
ever, by his holy help, we are enabled to do anything 
in the least well. 

Then Mrs. Browne asked Mary if she understood 
those words in the Lord's Prayer : "' Forgive us our 
trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against 
us.'^" ''What is it to trespass against anybody, my 
dear.?" 

2^ 



303 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Alary. To trespass against anybody is to do them 
any harm. 

J[frs. Broivne, If I hurt anybody by thought, 
word or deed, I trespass against them. We are 
taught in the Lord's Prayer to ask that God will for- 
give us our trespasses against him, only just as far 
and as much as we forgive our enemies. Now, my 
dear child, it is very certain and true that without 
the grace of God we cannot forgive each other. It 
is quite out of our power. So we ought to pray to 
God to give us such a view of the love of Jesus 
Christ, in dying for us while we were yet enemies, 
that our hearts may feel as ready to love one another 
as we are by nature prone to bear hatred and malice 
against each other. 

Mary. I never knew that we could not forgive 
without God's help. Do people never, by nature, 
forgive each other? 

Mrs. BrowJie. People may forget a mischief done 
them, in the manner which I will show you. If a 
person affronts me, and I do not see that person for 
some time, the affront may go out my mind ; but, 
without the grace of God, I shall be apt, on seeing 
that person again, to remember the affront, and grow 
angry again ; and, if the affront is of such a kind as 
is hard to be borne, I shall naturally strive to revenge 
myself upon that person ; or, at least, I shall be 
ready to rejoice in their downfall. But when we are 
led by the spirit of God, we put away " all bitterness, 
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speak- 
ing, with all malice ; and are kind one to another, 
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God 
for Christ's sake hath forgiven us." Eph. iv. 31, 32. 



THE CATECHISM. 303 

Mary. And there are two more pretty verses 
about forgiveness, godmother, which you taught me 
once : " I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
and pray for them which despitefully use you and 
persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust." Matt. v. 44, 45. 

Mi's. Browne. God give us grace to forgive as 
we would be forgiven ! 

Soon after this discourse had passed between Mary 
and Mrs. Browne, Mrs. Browne reminded Mary that 
it was Wednesday evening, and bade her put on her 
bonnet ; " For," said she, " I think it will do me 
good to have a little walk before church-time." It 
has been mentioned before that Mr. King was ac- 
customed, on Wednesdays and Fridays, after parade- 
time, to deliver a discourse after prayers, in the 
church, to such as were inclined to attend ; and Sei'- 
geant and Mrs. Browne were constant attendants. 

Mrs. Browne and Mary then made themselves 
ready, and walked toward the church. It was a 
pleasant, cool evening ; and they walked slowly 
along, amusing themselves with looking at one thing 
and another as they passed. Now, just as they 
came opposite the church-gate, a number of coolies 
overtook them, bearing, on their heads, chairs and 
tables, and other articles of household furniture, 
which they were carrying into a bungalow close 
by. 

So Mrs. Browne said, " Those are Mr. James' 
things. I suppose they are moving into their new 



304 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

house to-day." The words were scarcely out of her 
mouth, when ^.palanquin came up, in which were Mrs. 
James and her daughter Kitty. The bearers stopped 
to change just opposite Mrs. Browne ; whereupon 
she, striving to look as pleasant as she could, stepped 
up to the falanquin and asked Mrs. James how 
she did ; but Mrs. James tossed up her head, and 
gave her only a very short answer, bidding the 
bearers, at the same time, to make haste. 

Poor Mrs. Browne coloured, but she said not one 
word, either at the time or afterward, to any person 
about Mrs. James' behaviour. But Mary remem- 
bered all that passed, and said to Mrs. Francis, the 
next time she saw her, that she thought it was very 
cruel of Mrs. James to use her godmother so ill, for 
she would scarcely speak to her when they met. 

I think it was as much as three weeks after this 
happened that Mrs. Simpson called one afternoon 
upon Mrs. Browne. Mrs. Mills was that day come 
home to the barracks, and had stepped over to see 
Mrs. Browne, and to thank her for all her kindness 
to Mary. So they were sitting together when Mrs. 
Simpson came in, " Your servant, Mrs. Browne," 
said she. "And so, you are come back, Mrs. Mills.? 
You have been a long time away. Well, and I am 
just come from Mrs. James'. I have been helping her 
to put the glasses away, and those things. There 
was only one glass broken, and she means to make 
the man pay for it." 

" You begin at the wrong end of your story, Mrs. 
Simpson," said Mrs. Mills, smiling ; " we don't un- 
derstand what you are talking about." 

Mrs. Simpson. Why, sure, you know that there 



THE CATECHISM. 305 

was a great dinner at Mr. James' yesterday ; and I 
went to help and make the cnstards. There were 
two-and-twenty sat down to dinner ; six ladies, and 
sixteen gentlemen. It was a capital dinner — every- 
thing so handsome and plenty. Sixteen rupees 
Mrs. James gave for the turkey ; and one of the 
ladies said she had not seen such a dinner since she 
came to Indy. There was a supper too, and cards. 
And you can't think how handsome the house is 
furnished — two beautiful sofas in the best parlour, 
and everything according. And Mrs. James had a 
new lace cap on, and worked gown. It's the cap 
that was at Soudagur Dawson's for sale — you saw 
it, Mrs. Mills. 

Mrs. Mills. No ; I cannot say I did. 

Mrs, Simpso7i. Oh ! it's all lace and ribbon, and 
an artificial flower on one side, exceedingly hand- 
some : and Mrs. James looked vastly well in it. 
And Miss Charlotte, she had on a frock trimmed 
all round with pink ribbon ; and Miss Kitty's frock 
w^as worked in scollops. And all the company were 
in very high spirits. I could hear them laugh quite 
at the other end of the house. Thinks I, "Mrs. 
James has got her wish now." 

"What's that?" says Mrs. Mills. 

Mrs. Simpson. Why, I have often heard her 
say, and that years ago, that she hoped she should 
live to be a lady, and entertain ladies and gentlemen 
at her house. 

" But," said Mrs. Mills, " how will all this agree 
with an ensign's pay.'"' 

Mrs. Simpson. Oh ! it's only, you know, once 
in a way that they mean to give a dinner ; and they 

26 ^ U 



3o6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

have saved a sight of money. Then Mrs. James 
looks to everything herself; she will see that she has 
her pennyworth for her penny. She won't let any 
of those black fellows cheat her, not she. Why, 
yesterday she was at the end of everything herself; 
and this morning she and I have jDut everything by 
with our own hands. I have but just left her ; and, 
poor body, she is almost run off her legs. She said 
she would go to bed very early, and try to get a 
good night's rest. 

"I hope," said Mrs. Mills, for Mrs. Browne did 
not say much — "I hope that poor Mrs. James may 
not find all this but lost labour, as the Scripture 
saith, ' Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
"w^aters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy 
and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without 
money, and without price. Wherefore do you spend 
money for that which is not bread, and your labour 
for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently 
unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your 
soul delight itself in fatness.'" Isaiah Iv. i, 2. 

"What, at the Scripture again, Mrs. Mills!" said 
Mrs. Simpson: "well, I'll leave you to it." So she 
took her departure ; and, as my story is somewhat 
long, I will break it off here, and give you the rest 
another day. 



STORY XXVII. 




'■''Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that tres- 
pass against usP 

^ARY returned that night, with her mother, 
to her berth. The next morning it was 
said in the barracks that Mrs. James was 
very ill ; and Sergeant Browne, when he came in 
from parade in the evening, told Mrs. Browne that 
he heard she had a strong fever. 

"Poor body!" said Mrs. Browne, "I once loved 
that woman. God give me the heart freely and 
fully to pardon her all her offences against us." 

"My dear," answered the sergeant, "it was, I 
know, partly through her, that we lost the sergeant- 
major's place ; at least, I know that she did all she 
could to hinder us from having it ; but, even this 
matter, I am very sure, has been ordered, through 
God's mercy, for our good. As folks get higher in 
the world, they do not get happier, that I am sure 
of — nor better, neither, as I found when I was made 
sergeant ; for I was so set up when I got my sash 
and stripes that, if we had not lost our dear little 
lad about that time, I should have turned my back, 
I fear, altogether on the kingdom of heaven. But 

307 



3o8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

God was faithful, who would not suffer us to be 
tempted above that we were able ; but did, with the 
temptation, make a way to escape, that we might be 
able to bear it. i Cor. x. 13." 

j\Irs. Brow7ze. What you say is very true, my 
dear. I remember all this, and "know that all 
things work together for good to them that love 
God, to them who are the called according to his 
purpose." Rom. viii. 28. And I wish, my dear, 
that I could do anything for Mrs. James in her sick- 
ness. She used to love to have me about her when 
she was ill. 

Sei'geant Browne. If you can do anything for 
her, wife, I shall not be the man to put any hin- 
drance in 3'our way ; but we shall hear how she is 
to-morrow. 

The next day, early, Mrs. Browne stepped over 
to Mrs. Simpson's berths to ask if she knew any- 
thing of Mrs. James. 

"She is very bad," says Mrs. Simpson. "I was 
with her all night ; but I have no mind to go any 
more. If her fever should be catching, I have no 
notion of putting myself in harm's way, neither." 

Mrs. Browne. Would she like to see fne^ do 
you think.'* 

Mrs. Simpson. Why, you would not go to her, 
sure, would you.^* Why, she would not speak the 
last time you met. 

Airs. Browne. Who told you that.'* 

Mrs. Simpso7t. Oh ! I knew it, for all you kept 
it so close. 

Mrs. Brow7ie. I never spoke of it, even to my 
husband : how could vou know it.'* 



THE CATECHISM. 309 

Mrs. Simpson. Why, I was told by John Rob- 
erts, who heard Mary Mills speaking of it to Mrs. 
Francis. And I think, Mrs. Browne, that if you do 
go and see her, after such behaviour, it will be a 
very great shame ; for what is she better than you 
or I ? Was not she a private's wife when we came 
to Indy? And don't I remember, in Hilsea bar- 
racks — 

"Well, Mrs. Simpson," said Mrs. Browne, inter- 
rupting her, " I must be going to get my husband's 
breakfast ; and, after that, I think I shall just step 
up and inquire after poor Mrs. James, come what 
will of it." 

"Well, take your own way," said Mrs. Simpson : 
"I know you will never take the way of the rest of 
the world." 

After breakfast, Mrs. Browne, having her hus- 
band's consent, set off for Mr. James' bungalow. 
On the road she met Mr. James himself, coming 
toward the barracks. He accosted Mrs. Browne 
very civilly, told her his wife was very ill, and said 
he was sadly troubled to get a white woman to 
nurse her; "For," said he, "Mrs. Simpson has set 
it abroad that her fever is catching." 

" Sir," said Mrs. Browne, " if you will accept of 
my services, I have no fear ; for I know my life is 
in the hands of God, to spare or take away, as he 
pleases. I will come and nurse Mrs. James." 

"Mrs. Browne, that is very good," said Mr. 
James — " very good indeed." And he turned back 
and walked to his bungalow with her, talking very 
civilly to her all the way. He told her that his 
wife was very ill, and had been so ever since the 



3IO STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

day on which they had entertained a party at 
dinner. 

When Mrs. Browne came into the compound of 
Mr. James' bungalow^ she could not help observing 
how neat it was. Everything, too, within the bim- 
galo-vo was very handsome, she observed, and in 
great order. 

Mr. James took her into his wife's room, where 
Mrs. Brow^ne was shocked to see how ill Mrs. James 
appeared. She was lying upon her bed in a burn- 
ing fever, and did not know Mrs. Browne when she 
spoke to her. No friend was with her ; but a black 
woman was standing by her, beating away the flies 
with a cJioury ; for her children were amusing them- 
selves in the verandah^ just on the outside of the 
room — neither caring for their mother, nor taking 
any notice of Mrs. Browne when she came in. 

"My dear," said Mr. James, "here is Mrs. 
Brov^'ne come to see you." 

" Mrs. Brow^ne !" said the poor sick woman ; " no, 
I am sure she w^on't come to see me. I have of- 
fended her, and spoken ill of her." 

" But I am here, dear Mrs. James," said Mrs. 
Browne, taking her hand, " and you and I are 
friends now. I am come to take care of you while 
you are sick." 

Mrs. James then recollected her, and said, " This 
is very good, Mrs. Browne. I wished for you, but 
I thought you would not come. See what an end I 
am come to. I had just got all I w^ished for in this 
world, and now I must go and leave everything." 

"My dear," said Mr. James, "how you talk! 
Pray don't speak in such a manner." And the poor 



THE CATECHISM. 31 1 

man walked out of the room, for he was surprised 
and frightened at his wife's discourse. 

When Mrs. Browne was left with Mrs. James, 
she spoke to her again ; but Mrs. James seemed to 
have forgotten her, and taking her for Mrs. Simpson, 
she began to talk of the dinner and the compan}^, 
but in a very wild way. Now Mrs. Browne could 
do nothincf for her till the doctor came in and s"ave 
directions how she was to be managed. 

On the doctor's arrival, he looked very grave at 
Mrs. James, but gave no opinion about her state ; 
only he said, "Mrs. Browne, I am glad you are 
here. You will do as you are desired, and that is a 
great thing." 

Mrs. James lay till evening, without taking the 
least notice of any one. By the doctor's orders the 
room was washed with vinegar and the children 
sent out of the house ; so that Mrs. Browne began 
to suspect that the fever was of an infectious sort ; 
but her trust in God was firm, and knowing that she 
was in the way of her duty, she had no fears for her- 
self. However, she had many sad thoughts about 
Mrs. James — that the poor woman might, perhaps, 
be cut off in the midst of her pride and love of the 
world, without any time being given her for reflec- 
tion or repentance, or any opportunity of turning to 
her Saviour and saying, " Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more 
worthy to be called thy child." Luke xv. 21. These 
were dreadful thoughts to Mrs. Browne. She 
watched therefore for some occasion of speaking to 
her patient about the salvation of her soul, but 
could find none. Mrs. James was continually either 



312 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

quite stupid or rambling and delirious. Toward 
night, her fever grew stronger, and the doctor ordered 
two blisters to be put on her. 

Mrs. Browne sat by her all night, bathing her 
hands and face with vinegar, but Mrs. James never 
once seemed to know her. In the morning, she 
changed again, becoming stupid and inclined to 
doze ; so that it was still quite impossible to speak 
to her about anything serious, since she could not 
understand the commonest thing that was said to 
her. Mrs. Browne stayed with her all that day and 
the next night ; and many and many w^ere the prayers 
she put up to God for her, as she sat bathing her 
head with vinegar. 

But, not to make my story too long, on the ninth 
morning, I think it was, after her first being taken 
ill, Mrs. James changed for death. Mrs. Browne, 
during that time, had never left her, excepting to 
change her clothes ; and all the sleep she got was in 
her chair by the bedside. 

On the ninth morning, as I said, just at sunrise, 
Mrs. James opened her eyes, looked about her, and 
recollected Mrs. Browne and Mrs. Mills, who had 
come up to relieve Mrs. Browne. She looked first 
at one, then at the other ; afterward, speaking to Mrs. 
Browne with the voice of a dying person, she said, 
"Mrs. Browne, are you here? Do you know how 
I spoke ill of you, and did you all the mischief I 
could .^ How could you forgive me?" 

'^ I forgave you," said Mrs. Brownie, " my dear 
friend, by the grace of God ; and that grace was ob- 
tained for me by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 
— that dear Saviour, who will, if we trust in him, 



THE CATECHISM. 313 

enable us to do greater things than these, and delivei 
us from the power even of death itself." 

" Death !" said the poor woman ; " why do you 
talk of death?" 

IVL's. Browne. Because I wish you to apply, 
without loss of time, to Him who alone can save you 
in the hour of death. 

Mrs. James made no answer, but Mrs. Mills asked 
her if they should pray with her. To this also she 
made no answer ; so they knelt by her bedside, and 
Mrs. Browne prayed, aloud, most earnestly to' God 
to have mercy upon this poor sinner ; to send his 
Spirit into her heart, to convince her of sin, and 
bring her in deep humility to the foot of the cross. 
She prayed that through the precious blood of 
Christ she might be washed from her sins, recon- 
ciled to God and received into glory. While they 
prayed she seemed attentive, and began to shed tears 
when they got up and stood by her. 

" Oh ! that I had loved the world and all its vani- 
ties less," said Mrs. James, " and loved my Saviour 
more ! I knew what was right — sinful wretch ! — but 
would not follow it ; and now, now am I undone. 
Oh ! if I could but live another year — one other year 
— how differently would I behave ! I would lay by 
all my finery — I would go constantly to church — I 
would live close up to the Bible." 

" Do not make vain resolutions, dear Mrs. James," 
said Mrs. Browne, " but throw yourself on the mercy 
of Christ — throw yourself on his mercy without 
condition. He died for you — claim, therefore, his 
promises ; he will not cast out any that come unto 
him." 
27 



314 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. James made no answer to this, but com- 
plained of her head, and presently again lost all rec- 
ollection ; for she was seized with a kind of fit, from 
which she never recovered so far as to speak. She 
died very hard, and although nobody should judge 
in such cases, she certainly left little comfortable 
hope of the welfare of her soul. 

There was no person in all the regiment, except- 
ing her own husband, who grieved for her so much 
as Mrs. Browne ; for God had heard her prayers, 
and had not only given her grace to forgive the poor 
woman her trespasses against her but had filled her 
heart with such charity toward her, that she never 
was heard to speak a disrespectful word of Mrs. 
James ; and had it been in her power to serve any 
of her family, she would, according to the old pro- 
verbial expression, " have gone through fire and 
water to do so." Thus we see the mighty power of 
God in changing the heart of man ; and by this we 
should be encouraged, wdien we feel ill-will toward 
a neighbour, to apply to God, through Christ our 
Mediator, to take away the malice of our hearts, 
giving us grace to forgive the offender his trespasses 
against us, as we would be forgiven our trespasses 
against God. And let us bear this always in mind, 
that, as we cannot ourselves be forgiven without the 
blood of Christ, neither can we forgive our brother 
his offences against us, unless we do It In the strength 
and through the power of Christ ; for it is written : 
"Without me ye can do nothing." John xv. 5. 

But to return to poor Mrs. James. She was buried 
In the officers' burylng-ground in this place ; and I 
was told, by a person who saw it, that her husband 



THE CATECHISM. 



315 



put a handsome tombstone over her grave, with her 
name and age upon it ; but there was not a word 
from Scripture upon the stone, though Mrs. Browne 
much desired it. Her children lived with their 
father in the hu7tgalow where their mother died, as 
long as the regiment remained in that place. 




STORY XXVII. 

And lead 7is not into temptation? 




FEW days after the funeral of poor Mrs. 
James, Mrs. Mills and Mrs. Francis were 
going a-walking in the afternoon, with 
Mary and little Thomas ; and as they passed by Mrs. 
Browne's barrack, they stepped in to ask if she would 
bear them company. Mrs. Browne immediately put 
on her bonnet, and they wxnt out toward the great 
bazar. 

As they walked along, they began to talk about 
poor Mrs. James, and how she had been cut off by 
sudden death, just when she had gained those very 
things for which she had been striving all her life. 

'' I have been taught in many ways," said Mrs. 
Mills, " since I came to this regiment, that there is 
nothing worth seeking for with any earnestness but 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness ; for poor 
Mrs. James is not the first, by any means, that I have 
known who, just upon reaching the summit of their 
good fortune, have been carried away to another 
world by death." 

Mrs. Browne then said, ••' Well, I will own the 
truth. I was, at the time, mortified, when my hus- 

316 



THE CATECHISM. 317 

band lost the sergeant-major's place ; but God has 
given me grace, since then, to see my folly and 
wickedness. Do we not pray, every day, ' Lord, 
lead us not into temptation ?' and yet we would rush 
into those very circumstances which are calculated, 
in a more than ordinary degree, to draw us into 
temptation." 

" What you say, is very true," replied Mrs. Fran- 
cis. " We are very apt to set our hearts upon the 
great and pleasant things of this world, although 
they are, perhaps, the very things which most 
threaten to work our ruin. Very few of us, I think, 
take these words in the Lord's Prayer rightly — ' Lead 
us not into temptation' — or we should not, while we 
repeat that petition every day, be anxiously running 
after the riches and honours, the pomps and vanities 
of the present life." 

"What is temptation, mother.?" said little Mary, 
who had hold of her mother's hand. 

" You must ask your godmother, my dear," said 
Mrs. Mills ; " she has a better way than I have of 
making little folks understand these things. Do, 
Mrs. Browne, explain this to Mary." 

Mrs. Browne. Why, my dear, do you remember 
one day last year you and I went to the bazar to 
buy a silver thimble? 

Mary. Yes, I do. I have got the thimble now. 

Mrs. Browne. Do you also recollect, Mary, 
that same day, that your father desired you might 
have no fruit.? 

Mary. Oh ! I remember it well. 

Mrs. Browne. Suppose, then, that I had taken 
you that day to a fruit-shop, and stood a long while 
27 * 



31 8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

before it, and eaten some fruit myself, and offered 
you some; then I should have brought you into 
temptation — I should have been your tempter. 

Mary. Oh ! now I understand. But does God 
ever tempt people to be naughty ? 

Mrs. Browne. Never, for says Scripture, " Let 
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of 
God ; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither 
tempteth he any man ; but every man is tempted, 
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth 
sin ; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
death." James i. 13-15. 

Mary. Then, godmother, what does that mean 
which we say in the Lord's Prayer : " Lead us not 
into temptation," if God never does tempt people.? 

Mrs. Browne. Why, my dear, I take this to be 
the meaning — that when we say, " Lead us not into 
temptation," we beg of God, who is the director and 
ruler of all things in this wor^, not to put us in any 
situation, or way of living, which may tempt us to 
be wicked. It is as much as if I were to say in my 
prayers, Lord God, if being rich would make me 
wicked, permit me never to possess riches ; if being 
handsome would make me wicked, let my appear- 
ance be of the most ordinary kind ; if fine clothes 
would make we wicked, keep them for ever from 
me ; if I cannot stand against the attractions of in- 
toxicating liquor, hide it for ever from my eyes — and 
so on. 

Mary. Oh ! nov/ I understand what is meant 
when we say, " Lead us riot into temptation." 

Mrs. Browne. There are some things which 



THE CATECHISM. 319 

tempt ail persons to sin ; and those things every man 
who wishes to do well should resolutely avoid. 
Again, some things tempt one person, and some 
another; fruit, and sweetmeats, and pla3'things tempt 
children to sin ; liquor tempts some men, and money 
others ; find clothes tempt many women to sin ; and 
bad company is a snare to all, both young and old, 
men and women ; therefore, every person should 
shun the company of such as do not fear God. 

Mary. Should we never speak to bad people ? 

Mi's. Browne. Speaking civilly to people when 
we meet with them, and doing them a kind turn 
when we can, is quite a different thing from bearing 
them company, sitting down to their tables, and 
holding needless discourse with them. Your mother 
was displeased with you the other day, I remember, 
for not answering Nelly Price civilly when you met 
her, and yet she w^ould not have you to go and play 
with her. 

Mrs. Mills. But if Nelly Price was sick, and 
Mary could do her an}^ good, I would have her to do 
it, assuredly. 

Just as Mrs. Mills spoke these words, they saw 
two women stepping over the way toward them. 
These were Mrs. Simpson and the new sergeant- 
major's wife, Mrs. Dawson, who were just returning 
from the great bazar. 

"Your servant, Mrs. Simpson; good-afternoon, 
Mrs. Dawson," said Mrs. Browne, who was walking 
first. 

"The same to you, Mrs. Browne," replied Mrs. 
Dawson ; " and to you, Mrs. Mills ; and to you, 
Mrs. Francis. Mrs. Simpson and I have been over 



320 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

at the big bazar to buy some cheese and some 
cakes, and two or three more little things which we 
could not get in our bazai", for the day after to- 
morrow will be vay lad, John Dawson's, birth-day, 
and we are to have \}ol& putully-nautch in the even- 
ing. I have asked jSIr. James' children, and Nelly 
Price, and Sally Smith, and Hicks' little lass, and 
two or three more, to see the puppets. Did you ever 
see them, Mrs. Mills? But I suppose not; you are 
not for such things as these, I know. But, now I 
think of it, you would make no objection to Mary 
coming, would 3'ou, Mrs. Mills? Do let her come 
over the day after to-morrow, at six o'clock, just as 
parade is over. And, Mrs. Francis, do you let Tom 
come over too ; I shall be glad to see him." 

Mrs. Francis thanked Mrs. Dawson, but said that 
Thomas had a bad cold, and could not go out at 
night ; and Mrs. Mills made a civil excuse, too, for 
Mary ; I don't know what it was. So they parted ; 
Mrs. Mills and her company going one way, and 
Mrs. Dawson and hers the other. 

" Oh ! mother," said Mary, as soon as she was out 
of hearing of Mrs. Dawson, " why would you not 
let me go ?" 

" My dear," said Mrs. Mills, " I had many reasons 
for it ; and one of these was, my fear of your doing 
something wrong on such an occasion, as you have 
never yet been out without me or Mrs. Browne." 

Mary. Oh ! I would have been very good. 

Then said little Thomas, " So would I too, 
mother, if you would have let me go. My cold is 
not bad." 

Mrs. Francis. As to your being good, my dear 



THE CATECHISM. 32 1 

children, that is what you cannot be without God's 
help ; and how can you expect God's help when 
you desire to do what your parents do not approve? 

"But, Mrs. Francis," said Mary, "what harm can 
there be in, going to see the puppets?" 

Now Mrs. Francis and Mrs. Mills did not choose 
to tell all their reasons why they did not like the 
children to go, lest the children should occasion 
some mischief by carelessly repeating their words. 
But the truth was, that Mrs. Dawson was not the 
most steady woman in the regiment. She was much 
for liquor, and not choice in her company ; and the 
houses of such people, in general, are not very 
suitable for decent people to go to. So, in answer 
to Mary's question — What harm could there be in 
going to see the puppets ? — Mrs. Francis answered, 
"Fathers and mothers have often reasons for what 
they do which children cannot understand ; but good 
children, on these occasions, obey without asking 
questions ; and we should obey God's word without 
saying, 'Why did God order this.?' or, 'Why did he 
say that ?' " 

Now, I am sorry to say that Mary gave way to 
her naughty feelings ; and, instead of subjecting 
herself, as she ought to have done, to her mother's 
commands, she began crying and sobbing, and con- 
tinued doing so all the way home. And when she 
got home, she went to her father, and told him 
what had happened, begging him to put in a word 
for her to her mother, that she might go to the 
putully-nautch at Mrs. Dawson's. 

When Mrs. Mills saw how Mary was set upon 
going, she gave her consent ; for she had a mind 
V 



322 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

that she should learn wisdom, for once, from her 
own experience ; but she said to her, at the same 
time, "I give you leave to go, child; but I had 
much rather you should stay at home. Remember 
Balaam, whom God gave up to his own way in 
great displeasure. You are putting yourself into 
the way of temptation ; you are going among a set 
of people who have not the fear of God before 
them : how, then, can you expect to do what is 
right.? In your prayers, twice a day, you say to 
God, 'Lead me not into temptation;' and, at the 
same time, you run yourself into it, and that con- 
trary to ray wish ; is not this mocking God?" 

Alary. Oh ! but, mother, I will be good ; only 
let me go. 

"Well," says Mrs. Mills, "I have given yoM my 
consent ; and Mrs. Francis has given hers to Thomas, 
as you both seem so much set upon it." 

Little Dawson's birth-day was on the Friday, and 
all the Thursday, Mary was busy in looking out her 
things to put on the next evening. Mrs. Mills did 
not intermeddle with her in this matter ; so she 
chose the smartest things that she could find. To 
be sure, she had not much finery to choose out of, 
for her mother knew that the love of vain ornaments 
was sinful ; but there was a frock which had been 
sent as a present to Mary from the lady Mrs. Mills 
had been attending, which Mary had never worn. 
Her mother, though poor, was not vulgar, and never 
dressed her child in anything too showy for a little 
girl in Mary's station. 

This frock Mary took out of her box to put on ; 
and on Friday evening, when the men were gone to 



THE CATECHISM. 323 

parade, Mrs. Mills, to be as good as her word, 
allowed Mary to dress in it, after which, she put on 
her a clean bonnet and tippet, kissed her, and said, 
"Now, Mary, it is time for you to go to Mrs. Daw- 
son's. Call for Tomm}' Francis by the way ; and, 
a little before gun-fire, Mrs. Francis and I will come 
toward the sergeant-major's bu7igalow^ to meet you 
and bring you safe home." 

When Mrs. Mills kissed Mary, and set her off to 
go to the futully-72autc7i at Mrs. Dawson's, you 
would think, perhaps, that the child was very happy : 
but it was not so. Her mother's kindness, after her 
ill-behaviour, cut her to the heart ; and, as she went 
down the verandah steps, she had almost a mind to 
turn back and say, "Mother, I won't go — I will 
stay with you, according to your desire." But shame 
prevented this ; and so she went on. Now it seems 
a very odd thing that anybody should be ashamed 
of doing what is right ; but, alas ! so it is, as we 
must all have found by sad experience. When, 
however, we feel this wicked shame, we should 
remember these remarkable words: "Whosoever 
therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in 
this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also 
shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh 
in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." 
Mark viii. 38. 

When Mary got to Mrs. Francis' be7'th^ she found 
Tommy ready, in his best jacket; and they set out 
together from the barracks, as proud as you can 
think, for, by this time, Mary had put aside all the 
thoughts that troubled her. And here I would ob- 
serve that although it is an easy matter to put aside 



324 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

good thoughts, yet is it a very sinful thing so to do. 
This was, in part, the sin of Balaam ; and it is 
called in the Bible resisting the Spirit of God ; be- 
cause every good thought that comes into our mind 
is inspired by the Holy Spirit ; for we cannot, of 
ourselves, even think a good thought ; ever}' imagi- 
nation of the thoughts of our hearts being, as it is 
written, evil from our youth. 

But to return to Mary. She and little Francis 
went over to the sergeant-major's bungaloiv ; and 
you would have laughed, or rather, I should say, you 
would have been grieved to see them, how proud 
they were — Mar}^ in her smart frock, and Tommy in 
his best jacket. Now the men were still on parade ; 
but such of the women and children as Mrs. Daw- 
son had invited were already gathered together when 
Thomas and Mary arrived. 

There \vas Airs. Simpson and Mrs. Freeman, 
(Corporal Freeman's wife, in the same company 
with Francis), and Mrs. Burton (the late Peggy 
Thomson that was now married to Sergeant Burton), 
and Mrs. Dawson herself. These were all sitting by 
a large table, on which w^ere three case-bottles of 
liquor, a fine Europe cheese, a cold salted round of 
beef, a large cake for the children, with plums, and 
oranges, and sweetmeats, together with limes and 
sugar for punch, and all in great abundance : for 
Mrs. Dawson, although she was not so tasteful a 
bod}' as poor Mrs. James had been, was a mighty 
woman for having plenty both of victuals and drink. 
She was indeed a w'oman exactly to the mind of 
such as " make a god of their belly." 

In the further room the man was getting his 



THE CATECHISM. 325 

puppets ready to show off by the time parade was 
over. 

As soon as Mary and Thomas came in, Mrs. Daw- 
son said, "And so your mothers have given you leave 
to come, at hist ! Well, I am glad of it ; but it is 
more than I expected. I should like to know, Mrs. 
Freeman, v/hat harm there can be in a parcel of little 
puppets dancing .? But some folks are so particular !" 

"I like religion well enough," said Mrs. Freeman, 
"in its place; but there maybe too much of any- 
thing. Have you left your mother reading the Bible, 
Tommy.?" 

Mrs. Burton. Well, I never heard so much of 
the Bible as I did when I was in the hospital with 
my first husband, poor Thomson. There was Mrs. 
Browne, and Mrs. Francis, and James Law — they 
were always at it. 

"Religion is a very good thing at church," says 
Mrs. Dawson; "that's my way of thinking; or 
among sick and dying folk. But I never had much 
relish for it myself — I can't say as I had." 

All this time Mrs. Simpson was examining Mary's 
frock. "Why, that's the fellow-frock," said she — 
" the very fellow, I am sure — to one that I saw at the 
Europe shop last week ; and they asked fourteen 
rupees for it, and would take no less — not a courie., 
for I cheapened it myself, thinking, as I am but 
short, that, with a broad flounce, it would have 
made me a handsome gown. Where did your 
mother get it, Mary .?" 

" Oh !" said Mrs. Dawson, " it's the fellow to 
Nelly Price's frock, I am sure." 

" Nay," says Mrs. Simpson, " it's a deal finer, 

28 



326 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

and the work more delicate. To my mind, Mary's 
is far the finest." 

At the sound of her name, Nelly Price, who was 
in the next room, came running out, with John 
Dawson, the three young Jameses, Kitty Hicks, 
Sally Smith, and several more little ones belonging 
to the regiment. " What's that you are saying about 
my frock, Mrs. Simpson.?" said she. 

" Oh ! I was saying that it is not half so handsome 
as Mary Mills'," replied Mrs. Simpson. 

" But I am sure it is," said Nelly Price. 

'^ You are a saucy hussy," said Mrs. Simpson, " to 
contradict your betters in that way. But every one 
knows your good manners." 

Nelly Price had her answer ready ; and I know 
not how high words would have run between her 
and Mrs. Simpson, if they had not been interrupted 
by the sergeant-majors coming in ; and with him 
came Sergeant Burton and Corporal Freeman, and 
one Tim Greene, a young lad of the regiment, who 
was much at the sergeant-major's, and who would 
go anywhere for liquor, and would do anything for 
the value of a glass of spirits. 

" Well," says the sergeant-major, " are your pup- 
pets, as they call them in my country, ready, wife.'' 
But, first, let us have a glass a-piece." 

"Mrs. Simpson says she is for punch," answered 
Mrs. Dawson. 

"'And what are you for, Mrs. Burton.?" says the 
sergeant-major. " Punch, too, I'll warrant — you 
knov>^ what's good. Well, we will go and see the 
puppets, and Tim Greene will make the punch and 
send it in — won't you, my lad.?" 



THE CATECHISM. 327 

" I wish I may never have a v^^orse job," said the 
young man. 

" Mind you don't drink it all yourself," says Mrs. 
Simpson. 

" He'll take his share, I reckon," said Mrs. 
Freeman. 

" Put in plenty of the stuff," said Sergeant Burton, 
pretending to whisper, " or you won't please the 
ladies." 

Now all the company went in to see the putully- 
nautch^ leaving Timothy Greene to make the punch. 
Mary and little Thomas went in with the rest of the 
company to see the nautch; and the man set his 
puppets to work, and all things went on ver}'' quietly 
till Timothy Greene's punch came in, with a plate 
of cake for the children. Each of the company 
then took some punch ; and Mary and Thomas, see- 
ing the other children helping themselves, thought 
they would do the same. So they contrived to drink 
up a good large tumbler full between them ; for the 
liquor was very sweet, and the sugar disguised its 
strength. 

Shortly after Tliomas had swallowed his punch, 
" Oh ! Mary, Mary," said he, " see ! see ! the puppets 
are dancing upon their heads !" 

" No, no," said Mary, " they are right enough, but 
the room is turning upside down." 

Not, however, to lengthen my story too much — 
Thomas and Mary having made so good a beginning, 
did not stop where they were ; but after drinking 
their glass, they helped themselves to some cake. 
Then Thomas fetched a handful of sugar-plums for 
himself and Mary, with another glass of the punch. 



328 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

which was very agreeable to their taste ; and so they 
went on, till, by the time the 7iautch was over, they 
could scarcely see. It was now near evening gun- 
fire, and, time for every one to be at home ; for the 
sergeant-major would have no late doings at his 
house, for fear of mischief. 

When the company arose to go home, Mary and 
Thomas made shift to stagger to the door. But when 
they came to the steps of the verajidah^ Nelly Price 
came behind Mary, and setting her foot upon her 
frock, down tumbled Mary, leaving a great piece of 
her frock behind her, and pulling little Thomas with 
her into a drain, which carried the water off from 
the bungalow; and there they were when Mrs. 
Francis and Mrs. Mills came up, followed by 
Tommy's father and Sergeant Mills. 

" Why, here are Mary and Tommy, I declare," 
said Mrs. Mills, " both in the ditch." 

As Sergeant Mills lifted Mary out of the ditch, he 
said, " Wife, I will never meddle between you and 
Mary again." 

" Well," said Mrs. Mills, " never mind what is 
past now, my dear ; let us make haste, and have the 
children home, and put them to bed ; and God grant 
that no worse harm may come of this business than 
wdiat we now see." 

So Francis taking up little Tommy, and the ser- 
geant his daughter, they carried them home and put 
them to bed, for they were so stupid with the liquor, 
that they did not know what they were about. And 
poor Mrs. Mills and Mrs. Francis got very little sleep 
that night, so troubled were they about what had 
happened. 



THE CATECHISM. 329 

When Sergeant Browne came In from parade the 
next morning, "My dear,"^sald he to his wife, "one 
hears odd things, to be sure, now and then ; but I 
have heard something to-day which, I think, can 
hardly be true." 

"What's that?" says Mrs. Browne. 

" Why," says the sergeant, " I was told that little 
Tommy Francis and our little Mary were at the new 
sergeant-major's last night, seeing 2i futully-nautch ; 
where they both got drunk, and rolled into the ditch 
wdiich is by the sergeant-major's btuigaloiv'' 

Mrs. Browne then recollecting the invitation which 
Mrs. Dawson had given to Mary and Tommy, re- 
plied, " I don't know what to say. Mrs. Dawson 
did certainly ask the children, but I thought their 
mothers had refused to let them go. It is a sad 
tale, which I should like to contradict, and so after 
breakfast, when I have righted the room, I will take 
my knitting and run over to Mrs. Mills' : no doubt 
she will inform me what is the truth of the matter." 

Accordingly, Mrs. Browne went over, after break- 
fast, to Captain Smith's company's barracks ; and 
the first thing she saw when she came to the door of 
Sergeant Mills' room was Mary lying upon her cot, 
with her clothes on, and her mother bathing her fore- 
head with vinegar. 

"What is the matter with Mary.?" said Mrs. 
Browne. " I hope she is not ill." 

" She has been very sick, Mrs. Browne," says 
Mrs. Mills ; " and now she complains of her head, 
so I am bathing it with vinegar ; but I hope there is 
not much the matter, neither." 

When Mary saw Mrs. Browne, she began to cry, 

2S* 



330 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

and put her hands before her fiice. " Poor Mary is 
ashamed," said Mrs. Mills. " She has been a very 
foolish girl, and she is afraid, when you know all, 
that you will never forgive her." 

" What have I to do, not to forgive people ?" said 
Mrs. Browne — " I, that am but a miserable sinner 
myself. Why should Mary think I would not forgive 
her.?" 

" But I have been more naughty, godmother," said 
Mary, sobbing, " than I ever was before ; even than 
I was that Sunday when I rode upon a stick." 

"What have you done, my dear.?" asked Mrs. 
Browne. 

Mary could not answer for crying ; upon which 
Mrs. Mills, thinking Mary would be easier when her 
godmother knew all, told her the whole history of 
what had passed, and how Mary had drank too much 
at Mrs. Dawson's. Mrs. Mills was very much 
ashamed while she was telling this story. 

Mrs. Browne was greatly grieved and looked very 
grave when she heard what a sin Mary had been 
guilty of; and this hurt Mary more than if her god- 
mother had scolded her ever so much ; so that slie 
began to cry more violently. " My dear child," said 
Mrs. Browne, seeing how agitated slie was, " do not 
cry, but strive to be the better in time to come ; and 
pray to God to forgive you what is past, for his dear 
Son's sake. Kiss me and your mother ; and though 
you have done what is very sinful, yet be well as- 
sured that God will pardon 3'ou if you are truly 
sorry, according to that which is written : ' Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and 



THE CATECHISM. 33 1 

he will have mercv upon him : and to our God, for 
he will abundantly pardon.' Isaiah Iv. 7." 

" I am very sorr}-," said Mary — " ver}^, very 
sorry." 

" Then lay your head down on your pillow," said 
Mrs. Browne — " lay your head down, my poor child. 
God forgive you, and bless you." 

So Mrs. Browne drew a chair near to Mary's cot 
and sat down ; and as she wiped Mary's eyes with 
her own handkerchief, and kissed her, she said, " My 
dear child, you may, with God's grace, turn what is 
past to good account, and from the trouble you are 
now in reap great advantage. Whenever you re- 
peat these words in the Lord's Prayer, ' Lead us not 
into temptation,' remember, that when you run your- 
self into temptation, as you did yesterday, yo\i can- 
not expect that God will support you through it ; and 
if God leaves us, we can do nothing good ; but if w^e 
fall into temptation in the way of our duty, then we 
may rest assured that God will help us." 

" Godmother, I don't quite understand you," said 
Mary. 

Mrs. Browjie. I will try to make you, then, my 
dear. Mrs. Francis is obliged to live in the middle 
of a barrack-room, where she hears and sees much 
of what is very bad ; now, if she prays to God, 
through his dear Son, that he will keep her from 
being tempted to sin by the evil company about her, 
she feels assured that God will hear her prayer and 
deliver her from temptation. But suppose our good 
friend, Mrs. Grove, were to leave her pretty house in 
the country and come to this place, and choose to 
spend her time in the barrack-room ; would she have 



332 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

any right to expect that God would keep her in the 
moment of temptation? 

" No, to be sure," said Mary ; " for what business 
could she have in barracks?" 

" In like manner, my dear," said Mrs. Browne, 
" if we, who have decent and kind friends, will leave 
them and run into bad company, can we expect 
that God wnll hear our prayers and deliver us from 
temptation ?" 

Mary said, " No." 

" Well, my dear," said Mrs. Browne, " I have 
spoken enough for the present. Dear child, take a 
little sleep, if you can, and I will call in again to see 
you in the evening." So Mrs. Browne kissed Mary 
again, and went home. 




STORY XXIX. 



'''' Deliver us f rout evil; for thine is the kingdom^ and the 
power ^ and the glory, for ever and ever. Ai7ienP 




FTER parade in the evening, Mrs. Browne 
and the sergeant walked over to Sergeant 
Mills' berths according to Mrs. Browne's 
promise to Mary. They found the sergeant and Mrs. 
Mills sitting at the door to enjoy the evening air ; 
and Mary, who was much better, was sitting upon 
her father's knee. So Sergeant and Mrs. Browne 
stepped up into the verandah., and sat down by 
them ; and Sergeant Mills insisted upon their par- 
taking, with them, of some biscuit and Europe 
cheese. 

" Well, my lass," said Sergeant Browne, as soon 
as he was seated, "how are you this afternoon? 
What was that which I heard about you and Thomas 
this morning?" 

Mary made no answer, but hid her face against 
her father's shoulder ; for she was much ashamed. 

" Come, come, my dear," said Mrs. Browne to her 
husband, "Mary is sorry for what is past ; let us all 
forget it." 

"Forget it !" said Sergeant Browne ; " what would 
be the use of that? So far from forgetting it, I' 

333 



334 S TORIES ILLUSTRATING 

would have Mary call to mind and consider wha 
happened yesterday every day until her death, that 
she may henceforward know that she cannot of her- 
self stand temptation, and that she may say, from 
her heart, ' Lord, lead me not into temptation, but 
deliver me from evil.' " 

" Very true, Sergeant Browne," says Mrs. Mills. 
" Out of false tenderness we are apt to make too 
light of our children's faults ; ay, and of our own 
too, for the matter of that ; not considering that there 
is One above who takes account of them all." 

Sej'geant Browne. Had we but a reasonable fear 
of our children's falling under the sentence of eternal 
death, we should grieve more for their sinful nature 
than for any sickness or trouble of body to which 
they may be liable ; but while we are, most of us, 
over-careful and nice about our children's bodies, we 
leave their immortal souls to perish for ever, not even 
giving ourselves the trouble to pray for them. But 
all these mischiefs proceed from the want of faith. 
If we really feel what we believe, that there is a 
place of torment prepared for the wicked, it must 
necessarily excite our fears, and we should count 
nothing truly evil but that which tends to bring us 
thither. 

" I have often thought," says Mrs. Browne, " how 
I should feel, supposing I could see on the one hand 
hell open before me, with all its flames, and torments, 
and devils, and on the other hand, heaven, with all 
its glories. If I had such views as these ever before 
me, how little should I prize this world — meat, 
drink, clothes, or anything else ! and nothing would 
be a trouble to me but sin." 



THE CATECHISM, 335 

Sergeant Browne. And in this frame of mind, 
with heaven and hell before your eyes, what, think 
you, would be your thoughts on every repetition of 
that request in your daily prayers, " Deliver us from 
evil" ? 

Afrs. Browne. Why, I should think of nothing 
but to be saved from the evil one, from sin and from 
hell. 

Sergeant Browne. Now observe, wife, it is the 
work of faith to present these things (heaven, hell, 
eternity, God and the Redeemer) in such a manner 
to the mind that the believer may be as fully as- 
sured of their truth as if he saw them with the eyes 
of his body. For faith is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Mrs. Mills. When I hear of those holy persons, 
who suffered in so many various ways for the love 
they bore their Lord, my heart burns within me, and 
I am ashamed of my own little faith, who can hardly 
stand the jests of the women of the regiment, but am 
sometimes ready, through false shame, to turn my 
back upon heaven itself. 

'' Here, then, is an occasion to cry, ' Lord, deliver 
us from evil,' Mrs. Mills," replied Sergeant Browne ; 
" for bodily pain, loss, grief, reproach, death of 
friends, all may, with God's blessing, be turned to 
profit, and work together for our good both here and 
hereafter ; while sin alw^ays tends to the ruin both 
of soul and body in hell." 

" What we are speaking of," said Mrs. Browne, 
" brings to my mind a story which I have often heard 
you repeat. Sergeant Browne." 

" What, the story of the poor family on Bleak- 



33^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

field Moor, in Yorkshire?" answered the sergeant. 
" Mrs. Mills has heard me tell it many a time." 

" But I have not, godfather," said little Mary ; 
"pray tell it now." 

THE STORY OF BLEAKFIELD MOOR. 

Sergeant Browne. It is now, child, as much as 
two-and-tw^enty years ago since poor old Sergeant 
Cooper and I, with a lad (one Sam Waters), were 
ordered to go over the country, from a town in York- 
shire, where we then lay, to Derby ; I forget what 
was our business. The first night of our journey 
we slept at a small inn, or post-house, just on the 
borders of a great common, or what the people in 
this country call a ivieraun. The name of this 
common, as Sam Waters told us, was Bleakfield 
Moor ; and he undertook the next day to lead us 
over it by a short cut toward Derby. Accordingly, 
we started the next day at dawn ; but we were 
scarcely three miles from the house where we had 
slept, when there came on so heavy a shower of 
rain that we began to look about us for a place of 
shelter ; but the country was so wild, and bare of 
inhabitants, that we were drenched through and 
through with the rain before we came up to a pretty 
kind of little cottage, standing in a garden. We had 
no need to stand knocking at the door, for we had 
scarcely come up to the garden-gate when a comely, 
middle-aged woman opened the house-door and in- 
vited us in. 

I remember her words now. " Come in, my good 
men," said she, " and dry yourselves by the fire. You 
are heartily welcome." So she brought us in, and, 



THE CATECHISM. 337 

stirring up the fire, she made us to dry our clothes ; 
setting before us, in the mean time, some bread and 
cheese, and some good beer. Her house was small ; 
but so clean that, as the saying is, one might have 
eaten off the floor. She had a son and daughter 
grown up, two as handsome young creatures as ever 
I saw in all my travels ; only the youth looked some- 
what too fair and delicate, methought, for a man. 

But the best of all this was, that, as we sat eating 
our bread and cheese, we found, by the discourse of 
the woman, that she was one who lived in the fear 
of God, and had taught her children to do the same. 
She told us that she had been a widow some years, 
but that her husband had died in faith, and on his 
account she was full of joy, being well assured of 
seeing him again in a blessed world to come. 

" God has always been wonderfully kind to me 
and mine," added she, ''in delivering us from all 
evil, and bringing blessings out of every affliction. 
My husband was long sick and unable to work ; but 
sickness, pain and poverty brought him, through 
divine grace, to the knowledge of his Saviour ; and, 
by these means, he was delivered from evil." 

"You have well spoken, my good woman," an- 
swered Sergeant Cooper. 

" I loved my husband more than my God," con- 
tinued the poor woman ; '-but when I lost him, I 
was brought, by sorrow, to seek higher comfort. My 
idol being taken from me, 1 was led to look from the 
creature to the Creator, and I found rest to my soul. 
So God has always, hitherto, delivered me and mine 
from evil ; and I trust he will continue so to do." 

" EvilV^ said Sam Waters ; " what is it you 
29 W 



33S STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

mean by evil^ my good woman ? Is not the loss of 
a husband — are not poverty, sickness, and pain — 
evils P To my mind, they are great evils." 

"My young man," answered the woman, "I have 
lived some years longer in the world than you have, 
and have been taught by experience, as well as by 
Scripture, that these light afflictions, which endure 
but for a moment, cannot be called evil in the true 
sense of the word, since they often lead to an exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory. Nothing can be 
called evil but Satan and sin ; and it is in that sense 
that I have always used the word when I have said 
in my prayers, night and morning, ' Deliver us from 
evil.' " 

Poor old Sergeant Cooper was much pleased when 
he heard the woman speak in this manner. I re- 
member he put put his hand to her over the table, 
and said, " God Almighty hear your prayer, my 
good woman, and deliver you and yours from evil, or 
the Evil One, as I have heard it explained." 

By this time the rain had ceased, and we wished 
to be going ; but, before we set off, we all knelt to- 
gether and prayed, and so took our leave. As we 
passed through the garden, the handsome youth I 
spoke of brought us his hat-crown full of apples ; 
and his sister presented each of us with a posy of fine 
flowers, which were still wet with the rain. She 
was a very fair young creature ; I fancy I see her 
now. So we went on our way to Derby. 

Four years after this, or more, Sam Waters and I 
were walking through York streets, and not far from 
the cathedral or great church there, when some one 
came behind me and took hold of my arm ; and who 



THE CATECHISM. 339 

should it be but the good woman who had entertained 
us so kindly on Bleakfield Moor? 

She looked very much aged, and pale and sickly. 
"Have you forgotten me, Sir?" said she: "to be 
sure, I am much changed since I saw you last ; but 
the Lord has been good to me, and delivered me, 
hitherto, from all evil, and I trust he will so do unto 
the end, and that I shall, through a joyful eternity, 
sing the praises of my Deliverer." 

I was glad to see her, and put half a dozen ques- 
tions to her, as it were, in a breath ; as. Why she 
had left the house? why she was come to York? 
what had made her to look so pale? and where her 
present dwelling-place was? And Sam Waters, I re- 
member, put the question where the pretty damsel 
was who had given him the posy. 

To the last question she answered, with a sigh, 
" My sweet daughter is happy in the presence of 
her God, and my son is with her. All tears are for 
ever wiped from their eyes. They are delivered 
from all evil, having died in faith. But come," 
added she, " step across the way to yonder alms- 
houses, and I will tell you all the dealings of the 
Lord with his handmaiden." 

So we followed her, and she brought us to a poor 
little room in an alms-house, where she lived ; and 
there she made us sit down. 

" Alms-house, godfather !" said Mary ; " what is 
that.?" 

Sergeant Browne. Why, alms-houses are small 
houses built by charitable people for the reception 
of poor old persons who have no dwellings of their 
own. There are many alms-houses in England. 



34^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

They are often very comfortable places, and generally 
built near a church, that poor old people who live 
in them may have opportunity of attending public 
worship. 

So this poor woman took us to her room, and 
made us sit by her fire, while she told us what had 
befallen her. Her story was short, but the afflic- 
tions with which it had pleased God to try her were 
so mixed and sweetened W'ith mercies that she. 
through faith, had far more reason to rejoice than to 
grieve. Her two children had died — the daughter 
the first year, and the son the second, after we first 
saw her ; both of them in a decline. But, like their 
fi^ther, they had departed in a state of mind so 
blessed that their mother had a sweet assurance of 
their removal to a state of happiness. The sickness 
of her children had wasted her little property so 
much, and so spent her health and strength, that she 
had been forced to leave her cottage on Bleakfield 
Moor and come to York, which was her birth-place, 
and wdiere she had some friends left. " And here 
the almighty Deliverer from all evil," said she, " has 
provided me this comfortable, warm room, whence I 
have daily opportunity of going to serve him in his 
own holy house ; I am kept in perfect peace, and 
trust I shall be so preserved until my change shall 
come ; and I look to be delivered at the door of 
death, through faith in my Redeemer, from all sin 
and sorrow, and from every other evil, for ever and 
ever." 

When she had finished her story, she would needs 
have us join with her in prayer and praise to God 
for all his mercies. 



THE CATECHISM. 34 1 

We were ordered from York the next day, and 
sent to Hull, where we embarked on board ship for 
Portsmouth, and I never saw her more ; but I doubt 
not that she Is now rejoicing with them that " walk 
in white." 

When the sergeant had ceased to speak, " You 
see, my dear Mary," said Mrs. Browne, " how all 
our feelings and views are changed by faith ; without 
it what an unhappy creature would this poor woman 
have been, when parted from her beloved husband, 
her dear children, and her pleasant cottage, and re- 
duced to an alms-house ; but, through faith, she was 
enabled'to rejoice in all these little troubles, knowing 
that God was her Friend, and the Friend and Saviour 
of her family." 

Mrs. Mills. Do you remember the verse in Ha- 
bakkuk which Mrs. Francis used so often to repeat 
in the days of her trouble .? 

Mrs. Browne. Was it not this.? — " Although the 
fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the 
vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields 
shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from 
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet 
I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of 
my salvation." Habakkuk Hi. 17, 18. 

When Sergeant Browne had finished his story, 
and they had all eaten as much as they wished. Ser- 
geant Mills proposed that they should go out on the 
parade, to take a little air and exercise. It was as 
fine a night as you could see in India ; and some of 
the nights in that country are charming. Not a 
cloud was to be seen *in the sk}^, but the moon and 
stars shone in all their glory. There was a pleasant 
29* 



342 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

breeze, which, blowing over the jessamine and 
orange blossoms, for there were many orange trees 
in the gardens near the barrracks, brought with it a 
most agreeable and refreshing smell. The river, 
too, as the moon shone upon it, was seen at a dis- 
tance ; and the country beyond, as far as the eye 
could reach, scattered over with topes of trees, was 
distinctly visible in the moonlight. 

Now Sergeant Browne and Sergeant Mills and 
their families were not like many people I know, 
who would travel round the world, and pass through 
the finest countries of it, taking no thought about 
anything but victuals, and drink, and clothes, and 
such-like mean concerns. Sergeant Browne, in par- 
ticular, was a great observer of the works of God, 
such as the moon and the stars, the herbs and the 
flowers, the fields and the woods, the rivers and the 
seas ; and when he saw these things, he used, through 
them, to praise their Almighty Maker. And now, 
as he was walking, he took occasion to teach Mary 
that all those shining bodies which she saw in the 
heavens above were so many suns and worlds, all 
made by the Almighty Power of God ; that God 
governed and ruled them by his infinite wisdom ; 
and that in all their motions they obeyed his com- 
mands, never turning out of the course in which he 
had appointed them to move ; and thus he led her 
to understand that God would not suffer anything to 
continue in disobedience to him, to disturb the beauty 
and order of his kingdom ; but that all creatures, be 
they men, or be they devils, who should choose to 
continue in opposition to him, would, in the course 
of time, be cast out into outer darkness, where there 



THE CATECHISM. 343 

will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for ever and 
ever; "for thine, O Lord," said the sergeant, "is 
the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and will be 
so for ever and ever. Amen." 

"What is Amen., godfather.?" asked Mary. 

" Atnen^^ answered the sergeant, " is as much as 
to say, So be it. Let it be so. Ameit., in that place, 
means. Let God's kingdom be for ever." 

At that moment the gun fired, and the tattoo began 
to beat ; so it was time for all to be in their beds. 








STORY XXX. 

" Q. How many sacraments has C/wist ordained in his 

Chw'ch ? 
'■'■ A. Two only, as generally necessary to salvation — that 

is to say. Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord.'''' 

NE Sunday Mr. King's sermon was upon 
the First of Corinthians, the eleventh chap 
ter, from the twentietli verse to the end 
"When ye come together therefore into one place 
this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating 
every one taketh before other his own supper : and 
one is hungry, and another is drunken. — What ! have 
ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye 
the Church of God, and shame them that have not.? 
What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? 
I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord 
that which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord 
Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, 
took bread ; and when he had given thanks, he 
brake it, and said. Take, eat ; this is my body, which 
is broken for you ; this do in remembrance of me. 
After the same manner also he took the cup, when 
he had supped, saying. This cup is the New Testa- 
ment in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, 
;U4 



THE CATECHISM. 345 

in remembrance of me. For as often as ye cat this 
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's 
death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat 
this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, un- 
worthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of 
the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so 
let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth 
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning 
the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak 
and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we 
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the 
Lord, that we should not be condemned with the 
world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come to 
eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, 
let him eat at home ; that ye come not together unto 
condemnation. And the rest will I set in order 
when I come." 

When Mr. King had delivered the above verses 
from the pulpit, he enlarged upon such parts of 
them as were to his present purpose ; showing how 
the Corinthians had profaned the Lord's table, by 
making it a place if not of drunkenness, still of 
common refreshment ; bringing upon themselves, 
thereby, weakness both spiritual and temporal : and, 
finally, death. Thence Mr. King took occasion to 
point out the dreadful nature of the sin those men 
were guilty of — namely, the profanation of a sacra- 
ment ; and he concluded his discourse by exhorting 
the congregation to beware of being guilty of the like 
sin in any wise, lest they should become liable to the 
same dreadful punishment. 



34^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

•That same Sunday evjening, Sergeant Browne was 
on the main-guard, with Corporal Freeman, Timothy 
Greene and some others, and there they fell into 
discourse upon the sermon. 

"Mr. King," said Corporal Freeman, "is a fine, 
comely man in the pulpit, and speaks his words 
well. I can't say but I like to hear him, though he 
is so hard on our wicked ways." 

" His sermon to-day," said Sergeant Browne, 
" was a very excellent one, and touched us all." 

" It might be a good one," said Corporal Free- 
man, "but I don't see how it touched us, neither. 
It was about the Covinthians who got drunk at the 
Lord's table"." 

" They must have been a queer kind of chaps," 
added Timothy Green, " to do such a thing as that. 
I myself love a drop of liquor as well as any man, 
yet I should never think for to do such a daring thing 
as that, neither." 

" But suppose I could prove to you, Greene," said 
Sergeant Browne, " that, to all intents and purposes, 
you have done the very same thing, and that many 
times too." 

Upon this some of the men began to laugh, and 
Corporal Freeman said, " I know that you are an 
old soldier, Browne, and could almost make a body 
believe black is white ; but as to proving that Tim 
Greene ever got drunk at the Lord's table, I say you 
can't prove it. I'll lay you eight rupees^ to be paid 
before Christmas, that you can't prove it ; and this 
company to be the judge. So give me your hand 
upon it." 

" Fair and softly," answered Sergeant Browne ; 



THE CATECHISM. 347 

'' I have two objections to make to your proposal. 
The first is, that you have taken my words up 
wrongly ; I did not say that Tim Green had got 
drunk at the Lord's table, but that he had, to all in- 
tents and purposes, been guilty of the same sin as 
those Corinthians — namely, that he had often pro- 
faned one of the sacraments. And the second ob- 
jection is, that I never make any bets." 

"To say that I have profaned the sacraments, 
Sergeant Browne," said Tim Greene, getting up 
from his guard-cot, "is quite out of reason. You 
will say, next, that I am Prince of Wales, I sup- 
pose. Why, in all my life, I never was at the 
sacrament — no, never." 

"Well," said one of the young men, whose name 
was Henry Bill, "I should like to hear how Ser- 
geant Browne makes out this matter, for I have 
generally found the sergeant's words right enough." 

With that some of the men got up and sauntered 
to the other side of the guard-room, but Tim Greene 
and Corporal Freeman remained. 

"I maintained, from the first," said Sergeant 
Browne, "that I knew Tim Greene had profaned a 
sacrament. Now, if Tim Greene had but considered 
the Church Catechism (for I suppose he has learned 
it), he would have recollected that there are two 
sacraments ordained in the Church of Christ — to wit, 
Baptism and the Supper of the Lord." 

"Why, to be sure it is so in the Catechism," said 
Harry Bill; "but I do not know that I ever con- 
sidered the matter before. The time was, when I 
could have said the whole Catechism from end to 
end." 



34^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"I can't say," added Tim Greene, "that I was 
ever very ready at my Catechism ; and if I did not 
learn it when a lad, I don't see why I am to be 
plagued about it now." So saying, he turned away, 
and left the sergeant to talk quietly with Harry Bill. 

" The Church Catechism," said the sergeant, " is in 
some parts hard to be understood by children : but 
still, it is good for them to commit the words of it to 
memory, that they may be able to turn back to therxi 
at a maturer age." 

"True, sergeant," said Harry. 

Sergeant Browne. The Catechism teaches us, 
that Christ has ordained two sacraments in his 
church — Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Do you 
know. Bill, what the word sacrament means? 

"Sacrament — sacrament," said Harry; "no, ser- 
geant, I cannot say that I rightly do." 

Se7'gea7it Browne. I remember once hearing 
that the word sacrament originally signified the 
oath by which the Roman soldiers bound themselves 
to their general. With us, however, a sacrament is 
explained to be " an outward and visible sign of an 
inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained 
b}^ Christ himself, as means whereby we receive the 
same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." 

"Why, sergeant," said Harry, "I am now as 
much in the dark as ever. Those words are from 
the Catechism, to be sure ; but, as I before said, I 
never did understand the Catechism." 

"Then," said the sergeant, "I will endeavour to 
make you understand this part of it. Before our 
Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he directed 
his servants, from thenceforward, till he should re- 



THE CATECHISM. 349 

turn again, to do two things, as signs and means of 
certain benefits which they were to receive from him. 
First, they were at certain times to receive, at the 
Holy Table, bread and wine, as a means of accept- 
ing his body broken and his blood shed for their 
salvation ; and he has promised us that, if we do 
this in faith, our souls shall be strengthened and 
refreshed by his death and sacrifice, in the same 
manner as our bodies are strengthened by bread and 
wine. This is one of the sacraments ordained by 
Christ, and it is called the Lord's Supper. The 
other is Baptism. Christ, when on earth, com- 
manded his apostles to go and baptize all nations, 
washing them with water, as a sign and pledge that 
the blood of Christ washes them from their sins. 
If therefore we receive the sacrament of Baptism 
aright, the Holy Spirit gives us a new nature — we 
die unto sin, and live unto righteousness." 

"Then," said Harry Bill, "I am to understand 
that the Lord's Supper is one of the sacraments 
ordained by Christ our Lord, and Baptism the 
other." 

"Yes," said the sergeant," and both of these are 
outward signs or tokens, ordained by Christ him- 
self: by which signs, if received in faith, inward 
and spiritual blessings are conveyed to us. Thus, 
when we eat the bread and drink the wine in 
humility and fciith, the body and blood of Christ are 
communicated to us for the strengthening and re- 
freshing of our souls ; and when our bodies are 
washed with the water of Baptism, the Holy Spirit 
cleanses our filthy and sinful souls, imparting to 
them a new nature — provided we have faith." 
30 



350 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" Then why," said Harry Bill, " do they baptize 
little children ? They may need a new nature, but 
how can they understand anything about faith, and 
such things?" 

Sergeant Browne. Why, here again the Church 
Catechism will help you out : " Because they promise 
them by their sureties ; which promise, when they 
come to age, themselves are bound to perform." 
While they have no power to do right or wrong 
God requires nothing of them, but as soon as they 
are old enough to sin, they are old enough to have 
faith, and then he does require faith and repentance 
too. 

Harry Bill. Ah ! that's why there are godfathers 
and godmothers who are to answer for the child, 
and promise that it shall be brought up a Christian. 

"And now," said the sergeant, having explained 
the nature of the two sacraments, I will explain to 
you how Tim Greene was guilty of the same sin 
with the Corinthians. It was but last Sunday was a 
fortnight that he stood for Private Hawes' child. 
He was hardly sober when he came into the church ; 
and when he answered for the child, before God and 
in the face of the congregation, to renounce the 
devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of 
this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the 
flesh — to believe all the articles of the Christian 
faith, and to keep God's holy will and command- 
ments — I'll be bound to say he did not consider one 
word of what Mr. King said. Well, and after hav- 
ing passed his word for these things, he went home, 
and with the father and mother, and the other gos- 
sips, got so beastly drunk that not one of them 



THE CATECHISM. 35 T 

could walk to their beds. Now if that is not pro- 
faning a sacrament, and much the same sin as the 
Corinthians were guilty of, I never was more mis- 
taken about anything in my life." 

""To my mind," said Harry Bill, "you have made 
your words good, sergeant ; and, what's more, you 
have let me quite into a new light concerning these 
things. I think I must rub up my Catechism a 
little, for there is a deal more in it than I thought 
of." 

"Do, my lad," said the sergeant, "and I shall 
always be glad, in my poor way, to explain any 
part of it to you : so come, now and then, and take 
a quiet cup of tea with me and my wife." 

Harry Bill thanked the sergeant ; and thus the 
discourse dropped, Harry being called for sentry. 



STORY XXXI. 



Continuation on the Sacra??ients. 




HEN Sergeant Browne came off duty on 
the Monday morning, he related to his 
wife the conversation that had taken place 
between him and his comrades concerning the sacra- 
ments ; lamenting, at the same time, the gross ignor- 
ance of these solemn subjects in which "many pro- 
fessed Christians were brought up. 

Mrs. Browne, bearing this story in her mind, re- 
solved to question Mary upon the same subject as 
soon as an opportunity should be afforded her. 

It happened, the following Wednesday evening, 
that Mrs. Mills sent Mary to go with Mrs. Browne 
to church. Mrs. Browne arrived at the church door 
at the usual time, but found the church empty, the 
men having been kept on parade longer than usual. 
It was a very sultry evening, and the blossoms of 
the jessamine in the adjacent gardens filled the air 
with a faint sweet. Mrs. Browne asked the chocke- 
daur to give her a chair at the door of the church ; 
and while she sat waiting for the congregation, she 
took that opportunity of examining her little god- 
daughter respecting her acquaintance with the second 
part of the Catechism. 
352 



THE CATECHISM. 353 

" I think, Mary," said Mrs. Browne, " that there 
is no portion of the first part of the Catechism which 
we have not gone over together many and many a 
time. You are now come to an age, in which you 
should be taught to understand the second part ; that 
is, the part relating to the sacraments. I know^ that 
you can repeat all the answers perfectly well. What 
is the first question in the second part of the Church 
Catechism ?" 

Mary. "How many sacraments hath Christ or- 
dained in his Church?" 

Airs. Browne. What do you mean by the Church 
of Christ.? 

Mary. I remember almost the very words which 
Mr. King spoke about it once when he was catechis- 
ing us : " The visible Church of Christ is a congrega- 
tion of faithful men, in which the pure word of God 
is preached, and the sacraments duly administered." 

Mrs. Browne. You are right, my dear. And 
now tell me how many sacraments the Lord Jesus 
Christ has appointed in his Church. 

Mary. May I answer from the Catechism "i 

Mrs. Browite. To be sure you may. 

Mary. " Two, only, as generally necessary to 
salvation; that is to say. Baptism, and the Supper 
of the Lord." 

Mrs. Browne. You say that there are two sac- 
raments only., namely, Baptism, and the Supper of 
the Lord ; and that these are generally necessary to 
salvation — what do you mean by their being " gen- 
erally necessary to salvation .?" 

Mary considered a little while, and then said that 
she did not know what those words meant. 
30* X 



354 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" Why, my dear," replied Mrs. Browne, " the 
plain meaning is this : That those who would be 
saved ought to partake of these sacraments when 
it is in their power so to do ; but should it not be in 
their power, or in the power of their friends for 
them, as in the case of a baby dying as soon as it is 
born, before it can be baptized ; or in the case of 
people living where they have no opportunity of re- 
ceiving the Lord's Supper, w^e do not suppose that 
such persons are condemned to eternal misery 
because they were unable to partake of the sacra- 
ments ; therefore, we do not say that they are al- 
ways necessary to salvation, but only generally 
necessary." 

Mary. I understand now, godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. Can you tell me where, and in 
what manner, our Saviour appointed the sacraments.'* 
And first, can you inform me concerning the Lord's 
Supper — at what time and on what occasion did our 
Lord ordain that we should eat the Bread and drink 
of the cup in remembrance of him.^* 

Mary. The same evening when he was going to 
be betrayed, he gave this command to his disciples. 
I have often read the account of it in different places 
of the New Testament. 

Mrs. Browne. You have your Bible with you ; 
can you turn to one of these passages now .? 

Ma7'y. Yes: in Matt. xxvi. 26-28: "And, as 
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, 
and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said. 
Take, eat ; this is my body. And he took the cup, 
and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying. Drink 
ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the New 



THE CATECHISM. 355 

Testainent, which is shed for many for the remission 
of sins." 

Mrs. Browne. And where do we find the sacra- 
ment of Baptism ordained by Christ? 

Mary. I think that our Lord appointed this sac- 
rament just as he was about to ascend into heaven. 
Stop, I have found the place, in Matt, xxviii. 19: 
" Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost." 

Mrs. Browne. Our next question, Mary, is, 
What meanest thou by this word sacrament.'' 

Mary considered, and then said, " I know the 
words of the Catechism in answer to that question ; 
but I do not know what the words mean." 

"Well," said Mrs. Browne, "as there is nobody 
come yet, and I still hear the drum on parade, we 
shall, perhaps, have time to consider the meaning 
of these words ; therefore let me hear you repeat 
them." 

Mary. " I mean an outward and visible sign of 
an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, or- 
dained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we 
receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." 

Mrs. Browne. Our Lord Jesus Christ, by his 
death, procured for us certain favours and privileges, 
to which we had no right or title whatever before 
he had suffered the punishment of our sins ; of 
which privileges the outward ordinances of these 
sacraments are to be considered as signs. 

Mary. I do not understand this, godmother. 
How did our Lord obtain privileges for us by his 
death } 



35^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" I think," said Mrs. Browne, " that I can tell you 
a story which may, perhaps, make you understand 
this better. When I was very young, I went to a 
school where there were a great many children, and, 
among the rest, two brothers, the eldest of whom 
was a fine healthy noble boy, and the youngest a 
very sickly, and also a very naughty one. This bad 
boy was very prone to stealing, and had often been 
found robbing his master's garden. He had, also, 
taught several others in the school to follow his ex- 
ample ; till the sin of stealing was become so com- 
mon among the scholars that the master, being anx- 
ious to check it any rate, promised certain rewards 
of books and fruit, with admission into a new and 
pleasant play-ground, to such children as kept them- 
selves clear from this great sin ; threatening, at the 
same time, to inflict a punishment of twenty strokes 
of the whip and a week's confinement on every 
child that was guilty of it. 

" Some days after these promises and threats had 
been held out, another robbery was committed in the 
master's garden ; and, after examination, it was 
traced up to the younger of the two brothers, of 
whom I before spoke — this same naughty boy who 
had been the beginning of all the mischief in the 
school. 

" He was accordingly brought before the master, 
his back was stripped, and the horsewhip held over 
him, in the presence of all his school-fellows; when 
his brother stepped forward and addressed the mas- 
ter to this effect : ' Sir, I am not come to defend my 
brother. He is a naughty boy, and well deserves 
the punishment you are going to inflict upon him ; 



THE CATECHISM. 357 

but, at the same time, I well know, from the weak- 
ness of his body and his very bad health, that he 
cannot bear without danger w4iat he deserves to suf- 
fer. I beg, therefore, your permission to stand in 
his place, to bear his punishment, and in all things 
to be treated as he ought to be ; and, at the same 
time, I request that he, in my place, may be per- 
mitted to partake of the books, and pleasant fruit, 
and other favours which I enjoy, Sir, through your 
goodness ; and I have great hope, if this request is 
granted to me, that my brother will see and lament 
his faults, and will, with God's blessing, never again 
be guilty of the like.' 

'•• The master could not but admire this noble boy, 
and was ready to have remitted the punishment 
altogether ; nevertheless, to show that his laws must 
not be broken, he suffered him to be punished on 
his brother's account. So this generous boy received 
the twenty strokes, and was confined for a week ; 
while his brother partook of the pleasures which he 
had procured for him by undergoing his punish- 
ment." 

Maiy. But the naughty boy could not be happy 
when he thought what his kind brother was suffer- 
ing for him. 

" No," answered Mrs. Browne, " he was not 
happy till his brother's troubles were over, and then 
he rejoiced with him ; and, for the love he bore 
him, never was again guilty of the same sin. But 
to return to what I want to make you understand by 
this story. As the good boy, by standing in his 
brother's place, procured for him the favour of being 
allowed to share in the plays and rewards of the 



358 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

good children, so our L-ord Jesus Christ, by bearing 
our punishment, procured for us certain favours and 
blessings ; which favours and blessings are conveyed 
to us by his sacraments if we receive them in faith. 
Thus, every sacrament has an outward and visible 
part — a part which we see and understand by our 
senses ; and an inward or hidden part, which we 
can only comprehend by faith." 

Mary. I do not quite understand this, godmother. 

Mrs. B7'ow7te. Perhaps you may understand it 
better when we have gone on a little farther with 
our questions. What is the outward visible sign, or 
form, in Baptism.? 

Mary. " Water ; wherein the person is baptized 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost." 

Mrs. Browne. Water is made the sign, or out- 
ward form, in baptism, because it is the means of 
common washing and cleansing : thus, the water of 
baptism is the sign of the cleansing and sanctifying 
power of the Holy Spirit, which is the inward and 
spiritual grace. 

Mary. Do people, when they are washed with 
the water of baptism, always receive the Holy Spirit 
in their hearts, godmother? 

Mrs. Bro'W?ie. We know, for a surety, that when, 
as in the case of infants and true penitents, this 
sacrament is rightl}- received, God works in it ac- 
cording to his promises. It is not well to ask ques- 
tions as to those who receive baptism with imperfect 
faith ; but they may afterward, by God's grace, be 
true penitents and believers. 

Mary. Pray explain this a little more, godmother? 



THE CATECHISM. 359 

Mrs. Browne. Why, my dear, we are com- 
manded, in Heb. x. 25, not to forsake the assem- 
bling ourselves together in prayer ; but if we go to 
church merely to show our fine clothes and to ob- 
serve the dress of our neighbours, we cannot expect 
the blessing of God to be poured upon this ordi- 
nance ; neitlier can we expect God's blessings and 
graces to accompany the outward sign of the sacra- 
ments, unless those sacraments are received in fuith 
and with a right spirit. 

Mary. If a person is baptized in faith, what 
blessing will he receive, godmother? 

Mrs. Browne. " A death unto sin, and a new 
birth unto righteousness ; for being by nature born 
in sin and the children of wrath, we are hereby 
made the children of grace." 

Alary. "A death unto sin, and a new birth unto 
righteousness !" that is, having a new heart. So, 
when people are baptized in faith, they have new 
hearts given to them ! I now begin to understand 
it. They are washed outwardly with water, which 
is the outward and visible sign, or form, in baptism ; 
and their hearts are made clean, which is the inward 
and spiritual grace. 

Mrs. Browne. I believe we may venture to say 
that baptism, when accompanied with repentance 
and faith, is always thus blessed. But the new birth 
often proceeds so slowly and gradually that we can 
hardly be sensible that it is begun or how it ad- 
vances. 

Mary. But when people have new hearts, we 
may know it by their behaviour ; may not we, god- 
mother } 



360 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. Brozvne. Yes, my dear ; it is written in the 
Bible : '' Whosoever is born of God doth not com- 
mit sin : for his seed remaineth in him ; and he can- 
not sin, because he is born of God." i John iii. 9. 
" For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the 
world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the 
world, even our faith." i John v. 4. But, then, this 
excellence of conduct marks the advance of the 
new nature toward a state of maturity. Babes in 
Christ are weak, liable to frequent falls, and requir- 
ing the constant support of their Father's hand. 
They who are more advanced in the heavenly 
course are indeed equally dependent upon God for 
strength and assistance ; but they know whence 
their help comes, and are enabled to employ it in 
proportion to its extent ; never suffering their lamps 
to go out for want of oil, as the foolish virgins did. 
jNIatt. XXV. Can you tell me, Mary, what is required 
of persons to be baptized.'* 

Mary. " Repentance, whereby they forsake sin ; 
and faith, whereby they steadfastly believe the prom- 
ises of God made to them in that sacrament.'' 

Mrs. Browne. That is, they must be so sorry as 
to turn away from their sins ; and must steadfastly 
believe the promises w^hich God has made to those 
who are baptized. 

Mary. But, godmother, if it is so necessary to 
repent and to have faith before we are baptized, why 
do people baptize little babies.^ They cannot repent 
or believe. 

Mrs. Browne. Why, my dear, little babies cer- 
tainly cannot understand these things ; but neither 
can they commit sins, and Christ has said, Of such 



THE CATECHISM. 361 

is the kingdom of heaven. They are objects of 
Christ's love and mercy, therefore, and they receive 
baptism as the seal of their redemption, because 
Christ says, Suffer the little children to come unto 
me. Their sponsors represent them in making this 
covenant, and Christ accepts their faith (Matt. ix. 2), 
and gives the seal of his redemption to the little 
one. whose sinful nature (inherited from Adam) re- 
quires this as really as actual transgression. Now^, 
when the child is old enough to have faith, God 
requires it of him personally ; and it is only by 
believing that he can be saved, or get any further 
good from his covenant. But this is also true of 
older persons : all that has been done for me hereto- 
fore is of no power to save me unless I renews my 
faith and repentance to-day. 

Mary. Why, yes, godmother ! When I was a 
baby, I was as little of a sinner as a child of Adam 
can be ; and now I know why it is written : " Ex- 
cept ye be converted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'* 
Matt, xviii. 3. 

Mrs. Brovj7ie. Right, m}- child ! And, now that 
you are older, God requires of you that faith and 
repentance which alone can make you as a little 
child again. You see, then, why your sponsors 
were made to acknowledge this as your duty, at the 
time of your baptism. I have long since been con- 
firmed, as well as baptized ; but in this you and I 
are alike before God. Neither of us can be saved 
unless we renew our faith and repentance to-day, 
and every day, that so, by his mercy, he may daily 
renew his covenant with us. 

31 



362 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

When Mrs. Browne had said this, they heard the 
band playing. " Come," said she to Mary, " parade 
is over, and here comes James Law and the other 
men, so we must go into the church. I hope, how- 
ever, that we shall have an opportunity of talking a 
little more upon these matters another day." 







STORY XXXII. 



ON THE NEW BIRTH. 



for being by nature born in sin, and the children of 
wrath, we are hereby made the children of graceP 




OON after this conversation had passed be- 
tween Mrs. Browne and Mary, an order 
came for the men to march against a certain 
fort, which was said to be of great strength. It was 
a grievous thing to many of the poor women to part 
with their husbands ; but it was the will of God, 
and what could be done? Mrs. Browne and Mrs. 
Mills and Mrs. Francis were full of trouble upon 
the occasion, but they trusted their husbands with 
God, and so found comfort. 

When the men marched, the women w^ere all put 
in two ranges of the barracks ; and in each of the 
little rooms appointed for the sergeants there were 
placed two sergeants' wives. As Mrs. Browne was 
already in one of the ranges set apart for the women, 
she was not obliged to move, but she was ordered 
to receive another woman into her room. She 
begged hard to have Mrs. Francis, but as Mrs. 
Francis was not a sergeant's wife, it was not al- 

363 



364 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

lowed, and Mrs. Mills was gone out to nurse some 
lady. 

So, as Mrs. Browne could not have the company 
of either of her friends, she determined to be satisfied 
with what companion Providence might send her. 
Accordingly, toward the evening, after the men were 
gone, while she was sitting in her little room with 
Mary, who was to be left with her while her mother 
was out, one Mrs. Barnes, a sergeant's wife of the 
regiment, came up to- the door w^ith half a dozen or 
more coolies^ conveying her cot and other things. 

Mrs. Barnes looked in at the door, and, seeing 
Mrs. Browne, said, " Come, Mrs. Browne, you must 
move some of those things, or else where am I to 
put my cot, my table and my big chest .^" 

"What! are you coming here, Mrs. Barnes.'^" 
said Mrs. Browne. 

" To be sure I am," said Mrs. Barnes. " Where 
else am I to go } — all the other rooms are full. I 
should have been here three hours agone, but I could 
not get coolies. Here," said she, calling to the 
coolies without, " set down those things, and come 
in and lift that cot." So saying, she directed them 
to move Mrs. Browne's cot to that side of the room 
next the verandah. Then, setting her back against 
the wall, " Here my cot will stand very well," said 
she, " and there I shall put my table." Upon which 
she directed the coolies accordingly. 

" But," said Mrs. Browne, meekly, " you will take 
up all the room, Mrs. Barnes ! Remember, that I 
have a child with me, and you are alone." 

To this Mrs. Barnes made no answer, but kept 
bustling and settling her things to her own liking ; 



THE CATECHISM. 365 

and Mrs. Browne, thinking it best to let her have 
her way, placed her own things on the side that was 
left her as well as she could, and sat down with 
Mary again at her little table. 

" Is that girl to be with you all the time the men 
are out.?" said Mrs. Barnes, while she sat rubbing 
her chest. 

Mrs. Browne did not answer till Mrs. Barnes put 
the question again : " Is Mills' girl to be with you, 
Mrs. Browne, all the time the men are out.^^ Where's 
her mother } Can't she go to her .?" 

" Mrs. Mills is gone to attend a lady," said Mrs. 
Browne quietly. 

" She had better stay at home and mind her own 
affairs," answered Mrs. Barnes. Mrs. Browne 
coloured, but made no reply. 

By the time Mrs. Barnes had settled herself, and 
taken the best and largest half of the room, Mrs. 
Browne having set her tea-things, the cook brought 
in the tea-kettle and a little cake which she had 
made for herself and Mary. 

''I wonder where my cook-boy is?" said Mrs. 
Barnes, looking at Mrs. Browne's tea-table. " I 
told him where to come, but I don't see him. I 
fear 1 shall not get any tea to-night." 

Mrs. Browne did not seem to hear her, but gave 
Mary her tea, and told the child that she should have 
some cake when she had eaten a slice of bread. 

Mrs. Barnes then came and stood so near Mrs. 
Browne, while she pretended to be looking out for 
her cook-boy, that Mrs. Browne could not, in com- 
mon civility, avoid asking her to sit with them and 
partake of what they had. 
31 * 



366 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"I am not hungr}'," she answered, "but I have 
been stirring till I am quite dry ; I'll take a cup of 
tea with you, if you please." So sa3'ing, she sat 
down, and fell to so heartily that, in a very little 
time, she had eaten up the best part of the cake. 
Mrs. Browne, who had been pouring out the tea, 
was a little surprised w4ien she saw the plate nearly 
empty ; however, she took what was left, and gave 
it to the child. 

After tea, Mrs. Browne said, " It is our custom, 
Mrs. Barnes, to read a chapter or two in the Bible, 
and pray together, before we go to bed ; you have 
no objection, I suppose. Mary, get your Bible." 

In answer to this, Mrs. Barnes yawned aloud, 
saying, " I was up so early, that I am half dead with 
sleep." Then looking through the door into the 
,L;reat barrack-room, she saw there two or three of 
her acquaintance, and went out to them, leaving 
Mrs. Browne and Mary to themselves. But Mary 
had scarcely gone through half her chapter, when 
Mrs. Barnes came back again, with Mrs. Simpson, 
Sally Hicks, and two or three more women. They 
sat themselves down at the side of Mrs. Barnes' 
cot and on her chest, talking over all the news of 
the regiment, and telling such tales as Mrs. Browne 
was grieved Mary should hear. 

Mrs. Browne told Mary to go on reading ; but 
finding that the child's voice could not be heard 
among the louder voices of the women, she bade 
her shut the book, and took her with her to bed ; 
and there the poor woman, w^hat with being parted 
from her husband, and what with the disagreeable 
ways of her companion, felt so sad at heart that she 



THE CATECHISM. 367 

could not help watering her couch with her tears till 
she fell asleep. 

The next morning Mrs. Barnes was up early, 
brushing and cleaning; and when Mrs. Browne's 
breakfast was ready, she begged permission to par- 
take of it with her. After breakfast, she made a 
proposal that they should eat together, Mrs. Browne 
being the manager. 

Mrs. Browne consented to this, willing to please 
every one as far as lay in her power. Mrs. Barnes 
had heard that Mrs. Browne was an excellent mana- 
ger, and her honesty was known through all the 
regiment; so Mrs. Barnes seemed well satisfied; 
and as Mrs. Browne was forced to remain in the 
same room with Mrs. Barnes, it signified little to her 
whether they ate together or not. 

While they sat at their meals, Mrs. Barnes used 
to talk almost without ceasing, and that, for the 
most part, either of herself and her own concerns, 
or of her only son by a former husband, whom she 
had left in Europe with her friends. If she men- 
tioned any of her neighbours, it was always to find 
fault with them ; for she seemed to think well of no 
one but of herself and her son. 

It was in vain for Mrs. Browne to say a word 
about religious matters ; Mrs. Barnes constantly put 
by the subject, and that not aKvays in the civilest 
manner. And while Mary was reading her Bible 
in an evening she would interrupt her, sometimes 
by talking aloud to some one in the next room, 
sometimes by singing scraps of songs, and at other 
times by rattling the keys in the locks. Mrs. Browne 
for peace' sake, bore with much interruption of this 



368 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

sort ; however, she thought it her duty to speak her 
mind when Mrs. Barnes did anything very wrong. 

One day a v^'oman of the regiment came in haste, 
and said there was a black fellow selling some rum, 
very cheap, in a small house behind the barrack. 
"By the manner of him," said the woman, "I think 
he has stolen the liquor." 

"Where is he .^" said Mrs. Barnes. 

"Lend me half a rupee^' said the woman, "and 
I'll show you." 

"Don't go," said Mrs. Brow^ne : "have nothing to 
do wdth their stolen goods. Pray be advised b}' me." 

"But, indeed, I shall not be advised by you," said 
Mrs. Barnes, as she bustled away. "I am not such 
a fool as you, neither." So she went and bought 
two bottles of rum, very cheap ; and as long as it 
lasted she w^ent to bed every night, if not quite 
intoxicated, not above half sober. 

Another day. Black John called and brought Mrs. 
Browne a present of a very nice little ham, part of 
which Mrs. Browne grilled every day for herself and 
Mrs. Barnes till it was gone. At the same time, a 
friend sent Mrs. Barnes a few pounds of sugar- 
candy, and half a seer of Europe cheese, which 
Mrs. Barnes carefully locked up in her chest, with- 
out saying a word of it to Mrs. Browne. This Mrs. 
Browne passed by ; but soon after Mrs. Barnes did 
a thing which she thought it quite her duty to 
notice. 

Sergeant Barnes, in receiving the company's pay 
some time back, had, by chance, received a bad 
rupee^ which had lain by for a long time. Just 
before he marched he gave it to his wife, bidding 



THE CATECHISM. 369 

her to make as much of it as she could. She once 
endeavoured to pass it to Mrs. Browne, when paying 
her share of the table expenses ; but Mrs. Browne, 
perceiving that it was a bad one, refused to take it, 
without, however, saying anything further at that 
time to Mrs. Barnes. 

Shortly after, one cool and very pleasant after- 
noon, Mrs. Browne said to Mary, " I must give 
Black John's wife something ; for though he desires 
no return, yet I would not take the poor man's ham 
and give him nothing. We will go over this even- 
ing to the great bazar ^ and see if we can meet w^ith 
a pretty bit of chintz, to make the poor woman a 
petticoat." 

" Oh ! I should like to go, godmother," said 
Mary. 

When Mrs. Barnes heard where they were going, 
she proposed to accompany them ; accordingly, they 
all went. When they came to the copra-wauller' s 
shop, Mrs. Browne chose a piece of chintz for 
Black John's wife, and paid for it. Mrs. Barnes 
also chose a piece for herself, and laying down the 
price, which amounted to four rupees., she was 
bustling away, when the copra-wauller called after 
her, and said that one of the riipees which she had 
given him was bad. At first, Mrs. Barnes pretended 
not to hear, but the man called so loud that she 
was forced to stop. "What's that you are talking 
about.'*" said she. 

"Why, you have given me a bad rupee^' said 
the man. 

"Not I, I am sure. It must be this beebee" said 
Mrs. Barnes, pointing to Mrs. Browne. 
Y 



37^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

"No, no," said the cop7'a-wauller^ "it was you. 
That beebee gave me very good money. I have 
known her long. She never wrongs a poor man." 

"Nor I, neither, you saucy fellow!" said Mrs. 
Barnes. 

"But here is the riipee^' said the copra-wauller^ 
holding it up. "It is scarcely worth an anna.'" 

"You have changed it then," said Mrs. Barnes: 
" there is no end of the roguery of you black fel- 
lows." 

Mrs. Browne knew the rupee again, as the copra- 
wauller held it up, and she said, " Oh ! Mrs. Barnes, 
change the rupee., and say no more." 

"Why should I change it.^" said Mrs. Barnes. 
" It is a common trick of these fellows, to put bad 
money for good." 

"It may be so," said Mrs. Browne; "but that 
rupee is yours. I have seen you with it, and I 
once refused to take it from you." 

Upon this Mrs. Barnes lost all temper ; and the 
dispute between her and the copra-ivauller became 
so noisy and violent that Mrs. Browne got off with 
Mary as quick as she could ; only begging Mrs. 
Barnes to change the rupee; "For," said she, "if 
the copra-wauller should complain of you to the 
officers or the judge, I must be witness against you." 

Mrs. Browne and Mary walked so quick that 
they were shortly out of hearing of the contention : 
and they got home to Mrs. Browne's room half an 
hour before Mrs. Barnes appeared. At length she 
came in, puffing and blowing as if she had been 
walking through the hot winds ; and flying at Mrs. 
Browne, she called her every vile name she could 



THE CATECHISM. 371 

think of, telling her that she had been the means of 
losing her a rupee. 

" What ! you were obliged to give the matter up?" 
said Mrs. Browne; "I am glad of it. I really 
feared we should be called before the officers. And 
now sit down and cool yourself; tea will be ready 
presently ; and, pray, pray, for shame's sake, if not 
through fear of God, let this matter drop." 

Mrs. Barnes sat a few moments, to recover her 
breath ; but upon Mrs. Browne offering her a dish 
of tea, she broke out afresh, so that the barrack- 
room rung again, and all the women came gather- 
ing round the door to see what was the matter. 

Mrs. Browne looked up for divine help, and God 
gave her grace to keep silent and undisturbed till 
she saw that Mrs. Barnes had spent her rage and 
her strength, when she thus addressed her, in a very 
solemn manner : " Do you suppose that you are to 
live for ever in this world, Mrs. Barnes, or that 
there is no God to take account of your actions, 
that you thus attempt to defraud your neighbours, 
and that you dare thus to abuse a person who would 
prevent your accomplishment of such a purpose.^ 
Do you imagine that money, thus unjustly obtained, 
will yield you any profit.? Or do you suppose that 
your son will reap any advantage from it? for I have 
often heard you say that you are more especially 
•careful on his account." 

Mrs. Barnes made no answer, and Mrs. Browne 
proceeded to tell her, and that in very plain lan- 
guage, that if she continued in her present habits, and 
did not turn unto God b}' repentance, and seek for 
pardon through Christ, she would be utterly lost, 



372 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

and that for ever. ^' You may call me a Methodist, 
Mrs. Barnes," added Mrs. Browne, '' but that matters 
little : what I tell you is not from my own head, but 
from the Book of God ; and I hope you may not 
find my words true to your cost." 

When Mrs. Browne had done speaking, she took 
Mary by the hand, and stepped over into the next 
barrack to see Mrs. Francis, leaving Mrs. Barnes to 
recover herself. And on her return she found the 
poor woman in bed. 

The next morning, Mrs. Barnes was very sullen, 
so Mrs. Browne spent but an uncomfortable day. 
Soon after dinner, however, she and Mary dressed 
themselves, and set out to take the chintz to Black 
John's wife. It was a pleasant evening, and the 
way, for the most part, lay under the garden-walls 
of the gentlemen's bungalows^ where the road w^as 
sheltered from the beams of the afternoon sun by 
the tall trees within the walls. 

" Oh ! godmother," said Mary, as soon as she 
thought herself quite out of hearing of any person 
belonging to the barracks, " w^hat a shocking bad 
woman Mrs. Barnes is ! I would give the world 
not to have her in our room. And then she is so 
stingy, and so cheating, and such a liar, and uses 
such bad words !" 

" Well, well, poor body !" says Mrs. Browne ; 
" that may be true enough, my dear, yet I don't 
wish to be talking about it. We ought to be sorry 
for her ; since, bad as she is, she is no worse than 
we all are by nature, and such as every person must 
necessarily be who is not changed by the Spirit 
of God." 



THE CATECHISM. Zl2> 

" Why, surely, all people cannot be, by nature, so 
bad as Mrs. Barnes ?" said Mary. 

" Let us consider what the Bible says on this 
subject," answered Mrs. Browne. " I have often 
taught you these texts : ' There is none good, no, 
not one ; There is not a just man on earth that 
doeth good, and sinneth not.' What do you think is 
meant by these words ?" 

" Oh !" said Mary, " that there is nobody good ; 
that we all do bad things very often ; but then Mrs. 
Barnes never does anything good. She seems, to 
me, to think of nothing but herself, and how to 
please herself." 

" You have not yet, I see, a right notion of the 
very great sinfulness of our nature, Mary," answered 
Mrs. Browne. '' The people in the world may be 
divided into two sorts ; those who live after the flesh, 
and those who live after the Spirit. Every man, by 
nature, lives after the flesh and is a child of wrath. 
He thinks of nothing but pleasing and serving his 
own flesh, and following the*lusts of it. 'Now the 
works of the flesh are manifest ; which are these : 
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings, and such like.' Gal. v. 19, 
21. But when the heart of man is sanctified by the 
Spirit of God, he becomes quite a new creature ; 
abhorring that which is evil, and cleaving to that 
which is good." 

Mary. Do people never sin after the Spirit of 
God enters into them ? 

Mrs. Brovjtie. While man remains in the body, 

32 



374 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

his old sinful nature will not be entirely overcome. 
The body must be first laid in the grave, and there 
be dissolved, before It can be changed Into the like- 
ness of Christ. But the difference between the 
saints and the men of the world is this, that the 
saints hate their sins and groan under them ; while 
the men of the world glory and delight in them, 
never resisting their sinful inclinations, except occa- 
sionally from the fear of punishment. Now It seems 
to us that poor Mrs. Barnes Is one of those who live 
altogether after the flesh ; but she Is no worse than 
any other person who has not the fear of God dwell- 
ing in him. When you see more of the world, my 
dear child — although some people may have smoother 
tongues and gentler manners than Mrs. Barnes, and 
although some may be under greater fear of punish- 
inent, ^vhIle others may appear outwardly good- 
humoured and decent in their behaviour in order to 
please their fellow-creatures — yet you will find, that 
there is no real love, no real joy, nor peace, nor 
long-suftering, nor gentleness, nor goodness, nor 
meekness, nor temperance, but among those who 
are led by the Spirit of God. Gal. v. 22, 23. 

Then Mrs. Browne explained to Mary how the 
great change which passes upon the saints is com- 
pared, first, to death ; and, secondly, to a new birth, 
or being born again. " The Spirit of God," said 
she, " slays or destroys our own sinful nature, and 
makes us new again, in the glorious likeness of 
Christ. Thus, people are said, in baptism, to die 
unto sin, and to be born again unto righteousness, 
because the Holy Ghost is promised and received 
in Christian baptism." 



THE CATECHISM. 375 

" But all people who are baptized," said Mary, 
" do not receive the Holy Ghost, godmother ; or else 
why are there so many wicked persons among us 
white people, for we have all been baptized?" 

" You have put a hard question, Mary," said Mrs. 
Browne ; " but I have always thought, that when 
the sacrament of baptism is treated as a mere cere- 
mony, we need not wonder that It seems to do no 
good. Consider, Mary, how dreadfully it Is pro- 
faned by high and low, rich and poor. With us, 
In the barracks, a christening is often a drunken and 
profane meeting ; and It Is not a much holier one 
among our betters. Your mother has been at many 
a christening among the gentry, in the way of her 
business ; and what account does she give of them } 
Some do not even carry their children to the house 
of God, but hurry over the ceremony at home, some- 
times finishing the day In feasting, drinking, card- 
playing, and perhaps in dancing. Can we wonder, 
Mary, if such profanation of the outward and visible 
signs of the sacrament of baptism is not attended by 
lively tokens of the inward and spiritual grace .f*" 

Mary. No, indeed, godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. Still, we need not deny that 
God's grace Is mercifully given to the poor Infants ; 
but the sins of parents are visited on their children. 
If they are not taken away In infancy, they grow 
up Vv'ithout the knowledge of their duty, and so for a 
time, at least, they lose the blessings of the covenant. 
St. Paul says : " See that ye receive not the grace of 
God in vain" (2 Cor. vi. i) ; and again, " Grieve not 
the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed." Eph. 
iv. 30. 



37^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

By this time, Mrs. Browne and Mary were come 
in view of Black John's mindy-hedge^ over which 
the chopper of his house just peeped. As the ser- 
geant was not with them, Black John's wife would 
have Mrs. Browne and Mary to come in ; where she 
made them stay till she baked an Hindoostaunee 
cake, which she served up to them hot, with a lota 
of goat's milk. 





STORY XXXIII. 

Contiimation 07i the New Birth. 

HE moon was up when Mrs. Browne and 
Mary reached the barracks. On entering 
their room, they were surprised to see it all 
in bustle and confusion. Mrs. Barnes was stretched 
on her face upon the cot, across tlie feet ; and Mrs. 
Simpson, Mrs. Burton, Sally Hicks and Mrs. 
Dawson were gathered round her. Mrs. Simpson 
had just poured out a glass of liquor from a bottle 
which stood on a chest, and was holding it to Mrs. 
Barnes as Mrs. Browne came in. 

" What are you doing, Mrs. Simpson?" said Mrs. 
Browne. " If Mrs. Barnes is ill, don't give her that 
liquor, pray ; you may be the death of her." 

" The death of her, woman !" said Mrs. Simpson ; 
" I warrant I shall not hurt her. Is she to lie here, 
think you, and fret herself to death?" Then turning 
to Mrs. Barnes, " Do try to sup a little, pray — " 

Mrs. Barnes lifted up her face, which was all in 
tears, and with a deep groan swallowed do^yn the 
liquor. 

"What is the matter?" said Mrs. Browne. "Is 
Mrs. Barnes ill? I left her very well three hours 
ago." 

32 * 377 



37^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Mrs. Browne then learned that Mrs. Barnes had 
received a letter from Europe, givhig an account of 
the death of her son, upon which she had fallen into 
fits. Mrs. Browne was grieved to hear this news, 
and went to the candle to read the letter, which one 
of the women had put into her hand. The letter was 
from the clergyman of the parish in which the young 
man had died, who had frequently visited him in 
his illness ; and it gave a very comfortable account 
of his death. Mrs. Browne, with tears of joy, put 
the letter carefully by, hoping that a time might 
come when the afflicted mother would be enabled 
to receive comfort from it. Then going to Mrs. 
Barnes' bedside, she endeavoured to persuade Mrs. 
Simpson and the other women to leave the sufferer 
to her care, for they were buzzing and talking 
about the poor woman to such a degree that even 
had she been inclined to do it she could have got no 
rest. But Mrs. SimjDSon, on opening Mrs. Barnes' 
chest to get out the liquor, had taken with it some 
of the sugar-candy I before spoke of; and having 
sent for her own tea-kettle, she was now helping all 
her companions to a little hot toddy. Over it they 
all sat, sometimes laughing, sometimes condoling 
with Mrs. Barnes, sometimes pressing her to drink, 
and sometimes telling dismal stories of the like 
afflictions which other persons had met with ; till 
the sergeant who was left in the care of the bar- 
racks came round and ordered them all to their 
rooms. 

When they were gone, Mrs. Browne went again 
to Mrs. Barnes, and spoke to her, but she was 
shocked to find her quite intoxicated. She then 



THE CATECHISM. 379 

strove to move her from the feet of the cot, over 
v^^hich she was lying on her face, but she had not 
strength to accompHsh this, and was not inch'ned 
to call in help for fear of causing a disturbance. So 
she put up the remains of the liquor and sugar, and, 
locking the box, she sat down at the foot of the bed, 
from time to time speaking to Mrs. Barnes, from 
whom, however, she got no answer. At length 
Mrs. Browne, being tired with her long walk, fell 
asleep in her chair. How long she had slept she 
did not know, when she was awakened by a dreadful 
noise. She started up and found that Mrs. Barnes 
had fallen from her bed, and struck her head against 
the corner of the chest ; so that she lay bruised, 
bleeding and groaning on the floor. 

Mrs. Browne was now forced to call in help. So 
they put Mrs. Barnes into bed, bound up the wound 
in her head and kept her quiet till morning ; when 
she was placed in a doolie and carried down to the 
hospital, for by this time she was in a high fever. 
And as the doctor seemed to say that it might be 
long before she would be better, Mrs. Browne settled 
her affairs in the barracks, and leaving Mary in her 
room with Mrs. Francis, removed to the hospital ; 
where the doctor, being willing to oblige her, gave 
her and Mrs. Barnes an empty ward to themselves. 

Poor Mrs. Barnes' fever lasted long and was very 
violent ; it being hard to say whether she suffered 
most in body or mind ; though I believe it is gen- 
erally allowefl that horrors of mind are less easy to 
be endured than the most grievous torments of body. 
Thus the holy martyrs were known to sing and 
I'ejoice even while their bodies were consuming in 



380 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

the flames ; but who can bear the terrors of the 
Almighty? 

Mrs. Barnes at length became so very ill that 
Mrs. Browne was glad to accept the offer of Sally 
Hicks, who said she would come and help to nurse 
Mrs. Barnes, provided she might be well paid for 
it ; and for several days it was as much as both 
Mrs. Browne and Sally Hicks could do, with the 
help of the coolie^ to manage Mrs. Barnes ; for she 
seemed to be quite out of her senses, and would 
jump up in her bed, screaming and looking about 
her, as if she saw something very terrible. She 
would often cry, " Oh ! I cannot die. I will not 
die. I shall go to hell." And then again she would 
scream, shudder and roll her eyes, as if something 
very shocking passed before them. 

One afternoon, when the doctor came to look at 
her, he shook his head and seemed very serious. 
"I fear, sir," said Mrs. Browne, "you have not 
much hope." 

"Indeed, Mrs. Browne," said the doctor, "she is 
in great danger ; yet, if she can get through the 
next twelve hours, there will be hope. You must 
watch her carefully to-night." 

"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Browne ; " I will sit up with 
her the first half of the night, and Sally Hicks the 
other half." 

Accordingly, Sally Hicks went to bed the first 
part of the night, and Mrs. Browne sat by Mrs. 
Barnes' bed. It was dismal enough for poor Mrs. 
Browne. Mrs. Barnes had not spoken since morn- 
ing, but lay with her e3'es half closed. She was 
now so fallen away that she seemed like a corpse 



THE CATECHISM. 381 

lying on the bed, only that sometinnes she groaned 
dreadfully. As there was but one candle burning, 
the farthest end of the ward was quite dark ; and 
there was no sound to be heard but the dismal cries 
of the chockedaurs at a distance, and sometimes the 
bowlings of the jackals as they came foraging under 
the hospital wall. 

Mrs. Browne sat wetting Mrs. Barnes' lips with a 
little wine, and bathing her head and the palms of 
her hands with vinegar, till near one o'clock in the 
morning. Mrs. Hicks had been asleep ever since 
gun-fire, but Mrs. Browne would not disturb her. 

All of a sudden the sick woman sprung up in her 
bed, and seizing Mrs. Browne's arm and staring 
wildly at her, ''How can I die.'"' she said. "How 
can I appear before God with all these my» sins } 
No ; I will not die. I cannot bear the torments of 
hell. Then, to behold Him whom I have mocked, 
whom I would not love, though you so often would 
have persuaded me ! To behold that bleeding Lamb ! 
He would have saved me. Oh ! Mrs. Browne ! 
Mrs. Browne ! I cannot die — I will not die ! But I 
am dead already. Oh ! this fire ! this raging 
fire !" 

The poor woman then became so furious (beat- 
ing herself with her hands, tearing herxap, and her 
hair, and the linen of her bed) that Mrs. Browne, 
in haste and terror, called for Mrs. Hicks ; and it 
was as much as they could both do to keep her in 
her bed till day-dawn, about which time she fainted 
away, as they thought, when both of them sup- 
posed that her dying hour was at hand. On the 
return of daylight, however, they found that she had 



382 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

not fainted, but was asleep. Then they knew not 
what to think, but Mrs. Browne had hope. 

When the doctor came, he felt her pulse and 
found the fever had left her, and that she was fallen 
into a gentle perspiration. He stepped from the 
bedside on tip-toe, and calling Mrs. Browne into 
the verandah^ "The goodness of God," said he, 
"can only be equalled by his power. Your patient, 
Mrs. Browne, is better. Her fever has left her, but 
her weakness will be so great as to require all the 
care of the best nurse to keep her alive. I can trust 
you, Mrs. Browne. She must be kept very quiet, 
and have nourishment given to her every half hour." 

Tears of gladness came into Mrs. Browne's eyes 
on hearing the doctor's words. 

When Mrs. Barnes awoke it was really very 
touching. She appeared, as it were, a new creature, 
both in mind and body. She was, indeed, as weak 
as a child newly born, but then she was free from 
pain, and in her look and manner she was gentle as 
a lamb. She smiled at Mrs. Browne and Mrs. 
Hicks, and held out her hand to each of them, 
taking everything they offered with thankful looks, 
and often melting into tears when Mrs. Browne 
spoke kindly to her. 

Mrs. Barnes had several short sleeps during the 
day ; and Mrs. Browne was so careful of her that 
the doctor was quite surprised to find her in so 
hopeful a state on the repetition of his visit in the 
evening. 

She had a charming sleep the next night ; and 
when she awoke at day-dawn, after having drank a 
little spiced sago and wine, she was able to speak to 



THE CATECHISM. 383 

Mrs. Browne. ^'Kind, good Mrs. Browne," she 
said, "thou true servant of my heavenly Master." 
And before Mrs. Browne could answer, she added, 
"You don't know — you never can know — what God 
has done for me, for you never owed him so much, 
you never was such a sinner as I have been. I 
seemed to be in hell, Mrs. Browne ; for three days I 
was there. I felt all its raging fires ; and I should 
have remained there for ever had not that bleeding 
Lamb preserved me. He is all fair, Mrs. Browne — 
you know not how fair ; there is no spot in him. 
Oh ! I shall love him for ever — for ever — for ever." 

She said no more at that time, for her strength 
was exhausted ; but lifted up her eyes to heaven with 
such a look of holy love that Mrs. Browne stood 
looking at her all amazement. 

Mrs. Browne well knew that no man can enter 
into the kingdom of heaven unless he be born 
again and his nature altogether changed ; yet she 
had, in general, observed this change to be a slow 
and gradual work ; while in the case of Mrs. Barnes 
she had reason to hope it had been effected, by the 
mighty power of God, in a very few da3's. 

She stood, therefore, for some minutes glorifying 
God, and looking on Mrs. Barnes, who, from having 
been a coarse, haughty, sour-looking woman, had 
now a countenance rendered even amiable with the 
expression of holy love and peace. 

As Mrs. Barnes recovered, Mrs. Browne became 
every day more and more assured that, by the grace 
of God, she was a renewed creature. But she felt a 
kind of impatience till Mrs. Barnes should be strong 
enough to give her some account of herself. Ac- 



3S4 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

cordingly, one afternoon, as Mrs. Browne sat b}- Mrs. 
Barnes' bed, she thus spoke to her ; '' By the blessing 
of God, Mrs. Barnes, a great change has taken 
place in you since we first lived together. Religion 
was then a disagreeable subject to you, and now it 
is your delight. The world was then all in all to 
you, and now you have left caring for the things 
of it. Are you able to give any account of this 
change .?" 

" Dear Mrs. Browne," answered Mrs. Barnes, '-'• if 
you have not a right to the knowledge of my religion, 
I know not who has. I was brought up with very 
little religion, for none of my father's family were 
religious persons ; and since I came to this regiment, 
which is fourteen years ago, I have lived so entirely 
without any thoughts of God that I have sometimes 
been three or four years together without setting foot 
in a church or taking the name of God in my mouth, 
excepting in the way of an oath. I have always 
been in the habit of mocking at godly people, and 
calling them names, and spiting them when I could ; 
yet, in my heart, all the time, I knew that they were 
rio^ht and I was wrong. 

" When I first came to you, and heard you talk 
about our sinful nature and the mercies of our Re- 
deemer, though I pretended to despise your words, 
they sunk like lead into my heart. I often went into 
company and took a glass to put away the thought 
of them, and laughed, and talked, and bustled, and 
scolded ; but still they would return upon me, and 
make me very uneasy at times, though no one knew 
it. Still, however, I set my heart against religion, 
and clung fast to the world, hoarding and gathering 



THE CATECHISM. 385 

all I could, making my poor son an excuse to my 
conscience for this covetous temper. 

" In this manner I went on, till by God's grace, 
one or two things began to startle and awaken me 
from my sleep of death. First, I was ashamed of 
being detected by you in my attempt to cheat the 
copra-wauller ; and when, after I had raged and 
stormed against you all the evening, you laid before 
me the wickedness of my conduct in so calm and 
quiet a way as you did, I began to despise myself 
for all my odious behaviour ; after which, the death 
of my poor son overwhelmed me with distress. 
But perhaps I should have got over all these things, 
had not God, in mercy, followed them up with this 
most dreadful sickness that I ever suffered. No 
words can tell what horrors of mind, what fearful 
sights, what anguish, what burning torments I have 
endured in this bed. The Almighty opened all my 
sins before me in fearful array ; your words also 
came fresh into my mind ; and, to seal my condem- 
nation, I seemed, for a while, to be already in hell, 
the only place of which I deemed myself worthy. 

" But of all the sins that oppressed me, my con- 
tempt of the redemption offered me through my 
bleeding, dying Saviour was that which cut me 
most to the heart ; in comparison of this sin, all m}^ 
other sins appeared, and are, indeed, as nothing. 

" Oh ! Mrs. Browne," added Mrs. Barnes, " you, 
who have led a comparatively innocent life, who 
have never been guilty of the blasphemy and pro- 
faneness into which I have fallen, can have no idea 
what it is to endure the terrors of the Almighty ! Oh ! 
my God, my Saviour, grant that I may never again 
33 Z 



386 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

experience them ; for who can endure such fearful 
things? or who can strive with his Maker?" Mrs. 
Barnes then went on to relate how the Almighty 
God, having brought her down thus low and broken 
her heart of stone, was pleased at length by his 
Holy Spirit to comfort her with the remembrance 
of the promise, that although her sins were red as 
scarlet, yet, through Christ the Mediator, they should 
be made white as wool : " for he is able also to save 
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, 
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
Heb. vii. 25. 

" And it was during your sickness," said Mrs. 
Browne, "• when we thought you incapable of re- 
flection, that God dealt thus wonderfully with you ! 
' Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom 
and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his 
judgments, and his ways past finding out ! For 
who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who 
hath been his counsellor.'" Romans xi. 33, 34." 

Mrs. Barnes and Mrs. Browne finished this con- 
versation by offering a prayer from, the Visitation 
of the Sick^ slightly altered for the occasion, in 
which Mrs. Browne gave humble and hearty thanks 
to Almighty God for his merciful dealings with her 
poor neighbour. 

During Mrs. Barnes' progressive recovery she 
was silent and thoughtful, but her mind was con- 
tinually running upon the past sinfulness of her life, 
the wickedness of her heart, and the mercy of God 
in giving his Son to die for sinful men. Her love 
of Christ was so warm that she could not speak of 
him but with streaming eyes ; and, as she gathered 



THE CATECHISM. 387 

strength, she was casting about all manner of ways 
for contrivances to serve and please her heavenly 
Master. 

Her chest had been brought down from the bar- 
racks when she was first taken ill. In past times 
this chest and its contents had been all her glory and 
delight ; yea, her treasure and her heart were in it ; 
but now, as soon as she had gathered strength suf- 
ficient to look into it, she began to scatter her hoards 
abroad with a liberal hand. The piece of chintz 
that she had bought at the bazar she presented to 
Mrs. Hicks, with four rupees; and a gold mohur^ 
which she had hoarded up for years, she offered as a 
present to Mrs. Browne; who, however, could not 
be persuaded to receive it by Mrs. Barnes' most 
urgent entreaties. 

" Well, if you will not have it for yourself, Mrs. 
Browne," said Mrs. Barnes, " take it next Sunday 
and slip it into Mr. King's poor-box ; but do not tell 
any one. It is but a poor thank-offering to my God 
for his late mercies to me. I now am wholly his, 
and all I have is his. He has bought me with a 
precious price." 

To this proposal Mrs. Browne gladly consented, 
and the gold mohur was put into Mr. King's box 
the next Sunday. 

The Europe cheese was the next thing that came 
out of the box ; and when it was thought safe for 
Mary to come to Mrs. Browne, she got all that was 
left of the sugar-candy. 

About that time died poor Sally Jones, who had 
been for many years a sickly body, leaving behind 
her a little girl of five years old by a former hus- 



388 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

band. Upon this occasion, Mrs. Barnes got a friend 
to write to her husband in camp for leave to take 
the child. 

The sergeant sent her word that she might do as 
she liked, at the same time saying to one of the men, 
" What's come to my wife now? She will soon be 
tired of the child." But Sergeant Barnes was mis- 
taken, for Mrs. Barnes never parted with her till she 
married, and brought her up exceedingly well too. 

Mrs. Browne and Mrs. Barnes were able to return 
to barracks before the men came back from the field ; 
when Mrs. Barnes went with Mrs. Browne to church 
three or four times a week, bought herself a Bible 
and prayer-book, and sung psalms and prayed ; re- 
fusing at the same time to drink and play at cards 
with the sergeants' wives, as in former days ; so that 
the women of the regiment soon gave her the name 
of a Methodist, and shunned her company as much 
as they did Mrs. Browne's, Mrs. Mills', or Mrs. 
Francis'. The news also soon reached the camp 
that Sergeant Barnes' wife was turned " Methodist." 

" Well," said the sergeant, when they were banter- 
ing him upon it, " she will be a gainer, no doubt, by 
the change ; and as for me, I cannot be much of a 
loser by it ; since, come what will, I cannot possibly 
have a worse life with her than I have had." 

I should not forget to say, that when Mrs. Barnes 
read the letter again which brought the account of 
her son's death, and understood that he had died in 
faith, she could not refrain from shedding tears of 
joy. " Oh ! Mrs. Browne," said she, " when I first 
read this letter I was dead in sin — a stranger to God 
and a lover of the world. All I desired for my child 



THE CATECHISM. 389 

was, that he might get forward in the world. I had 
then no regard for his immortal soul ; but now I 
prize the soul of my child above all the silver and 
gold in the world, and can thank God, with all my 
heart, for the holy death of my beloved son." 

" How truly doth the Scripture say," remarked 
Mrs. Browne, on hearing Mrs. Barnes' words, " ' If 
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old 
things are passed away ; behold, all things are be- 
come new.' " 2 Cor. v. 17. And not long afterward, 
Mrs. Browne said to Mary, " You see, my child, 
tokens of God's grace in this woman now, but there 
is reason to believe that his Spirit was striving with 
her, even when you saw nothing in her but wicked- 
ness. He had not yet deserted her, and what is at 
last bringing forth fruit was planted, no doubt, when 
she was baptized into Christ. She has only, by a 
sincere repentance, become once more as a little 
child." 
33* 




STORY XXXIV. 

Continuation on the Neuo Birth. 

NE fine afternoon in the latter end of Feb- 
ruary, immediately after Mrs. Barnes' joyful 
recovery, Mrs. Browne and Mary took a 
walk into the same beautiful garden of which men- 
tion was before made. This garden belonged to a 
very rich native, and in the centre of it was a house 
built after the fashion of the country. This house, 
which was but seldom inhabited, was shaded from 
the ardent sun by many beautiful trees which grew 
thickly around it. There the fragrant baubool, in 
the cold season, shed its odours from blossoms re- 
sembling golden balls. Mingled with the baubool 
was the parkinsonia, spreading abroad its feathered 
branches ; and there, also, was the pomegranate, of 
which we so often read in the Holy Scriptures, the 
Persian jessamine, and the rose bush. 

Among these trees were many birds. The dove, 
whose sad, yet sweet note reminds the European of 
the cuckoo, constraining many a wanderer from 
Europe to sigh in the remembrance of his native 
country. Here, too, were abundance of nightin- 
gales, with a very beautiful bird called in this country 
the bearer-bird, having a tufted head of various- 

390 



THE CATECHISM. 39 1 

coloured feathers. Multitudes also of green parrots 
fluttered and chattered among the trees, being hardly 
distinguishable by their plumage from the leaves 
among which they harboured ; while the chele, or 
brahminee kite, soared aloft in the air, from time to 
time uttering its shrill cry. 

Mrs. Browne and Mary seated themselves on two 
moras made of cane, which they found in the garden, 
and began to talk of Mrs. Barnes ; for indeed Mrs. 
Browne could hardly think of anything else but of 
the wonderful and merciful dealings of God toward 
that favoured woman ; and Mary put this question 
to Mrs. Browne : " Is it common, godmother, for 
people to be changed so suddenly as Mrs. Barnes 
has been.'* What a very bad woman she was when 
we first lived together ! and now she is almost as 
good as you and Mrs. Francis are." 

Mrs. Browne. As to being good, my dear, 
that we have none of us any pretensions to ; but, 
certainly, a very great and happy change has passed, 
upon Mrs. Barnes ; and this change has taken place 
in a very surprising manner, and shows the wonder- 
ful power of God. 

" But is it common, godmother, for people to be 
so suddenly changed T' asked Mary again. 

Mrs. Browne. No, my dear, it is not common; 
neither are these sudden changes so desirable or so 
much to be depended upon as those of a more slow 
and gradual kind. When people have turned to 
good so quickly as Mrs. Barnes, there is a danger 
that they may turn back again to their evil ways as 
suddenly ; nevertheless, if the work is of God, it is 
a blessed work. 



392 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

" But I heard a person yesterday," said Mary, 
" laughing at Mrs. Barnes, and saying she had no 
opinion of such sudden conversions. That was the 
word the person used." 

" I fear, Mary, that you were in very bad company 
yesterday," repHed Mrs. Browne. " How came 3'ou 
to hear such discourse .f*" 

Maiy. As I was sitting at work in the berths I 
heard two of our women talking about Mrs. Barnes 
on the verandah. 

Mrs, Browne. It would be as well, Mary, if you 
were to stop your ears against such profane discourse. 
The cleansing of man's evil heart is the work of 
God ; and cannot God do his work at what time 
and in what way he pleases.'' Do you remember the 
account which is given in the second chapter of 
the Acts, of three thousand souls who were suddenly 
turned to God on the day of Pentecost by the power 
of the Holy Spirit.? But, at the same time, these 
events are not common ; the work of God is gener- 
ally more slow, and is usually brought about in a less 
extraordinary way than in the case of Mrs. Barnes. 

Mary. Can people always tell the time when 
their hearts begin to be changed.? 

Mrs. Browne. We know that every person's 
heart must be changed before they can enter the 
kingdom of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ said to 
Nicodemus. John iii. 5, 6. "The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, 
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it 
goeth ; so is every one that is borne of the Spirit." 
John iii. 8. Again we know that in baptism we 
receive "that which by nature we cannot have;" 



THE CATECHISM. 393 

but, further, we can only know that the Spirit of 
God continues his glorious work of cleansing the 
heart by the fruits which it produces. Yet, as I said 
before, the work may be begun long before these 
fruits appear in perfection. Do you know, Mary, 
what the fruits of the Spirit are ? 

Mary. Yes, godmother, they are these : " Love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance ; against such there is no law. 
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh 
with the affections and lusts." Gal. v. 22-24. 

Mrs. Browne. You understand, m}' dear child, 
that the heart of man cannot be cleansed or renewed 
but by the influence of the Holy Spirit of God. We 
are taught, also, that man may resist the Spirit : 
"Ye stiff'-necked and uncircumcised in heart and 
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your 
fathers did, so do ye." Acts vii. 51. Parents, how- 
ever, though they cannot actually change the hearts 
of their children, may do much toward facilitat- 
ing the growth of their new and heavenly nature, 
after its first communication, by removing impedi- 
ments out of the way of its progress. 

While Mrs. Browne was speaking, the gardener 
came to a bed of flowers just before where they sat, 
and taking up a little frame of jaffrey-work, covered 
with matting, Mrs. Browne and Mary found that it 
had been put there to shelter a small shrub, whose 
delicate green leaves and flowers of a spotless and 
glossy white were exceedingly beautiful. The gar- 
dener, having looked carefully at this little shrub, 
began gently to loosen the mould about it and to 
add a little round the stem. He then picked from 



394 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

some of the leaves certain insects which were har- 
bouring among them, lopping off with his knife, 
here and there, a dead leaf or unkindly branch ; 
after which, by opening a small channel, he admitted, 
from a well in the middle of the garden, as much 
water as he thought might be needful for the plant ; 
and being now about to depart, Mrs. Browne thus 
accosted him, " I suppose you have something there 
YQYy valuable, my good man, by the great care you 
seem to take of it?" 

The gardener bowed, and answered, " This little 
tree comes from a distant country ; and as it is not a 
native of these parts, it would not grow here with- 
out the greatest care. It is a tree highly valued by 
my master ; and on that account I am very anxious 
for its preservation." 

" Certainly," said Mrs. Browne ; " you do what is 
perfectly right." 

When the gardener was gone, Mrs. Browne turned 
to Mary, and said, " We might learn a very pretty 
lesson from what we have just seen and heard. 
Can you tell me what it is .?" 

Mary considered a few minutes. "No, god- 
mother," she said, " I don't know what this lesson 
is." 

Mrs. Browne smiled, and said, " Do you remem- 
ber, Mary, what we were talking of when the gar- 
dener came to look at the little tree ?" 

jMa?y. Yes, godmother ; you were saying that 
fathers and mothers cannot give their children a new 
nature, but that they may do much toward its pro- 
gress, when God has once imparted that nature to 
their children. 



THE CATECHISM. 395 

*' Well," said Mrs. Browne, " and cannot you see 
how the new nature, or new and heavenly life, 
planted in Baptism, in the heart of a child, may be 
compared to this little fair tree, brought from a dis- 
tant country and transplanted into a foreign soil ? 
Our Lord delights in this new life which he has 
plantedj- For his sake, therefore, we ought to culti- 
vate it — we ought to protect it from evil — we ought 
to lop off the unkindly branches — we ought to seek 
for it the refreshments of tJfe Holy Spirit, as the 
gardener opened the channels for the water to pour 
in upon this little tree. In a word, we ought to cul- 
tivate it by every means in our power, because our 
Lord loves it." 

Mary. Godmother, 1 understand a great deal 
now of what you mean ; and I know, now, what we 
are to learn from the gardener. 

Mrs. Browne. I am glad of it, my dear. Try 
to explain what you understand. 

Mary. Why, godmother, it is this ; first, that by 
birth we are very wicked ; and that, before we can 
go to heaven, we must have a new nature imparted 
to us. This new nature is given at Baptism, and it 
comes from a far country, as this beautiful little tree 
did ; and it is lovely in the eyes of God, as this 
pretty tree is in the eyes of the gardener's master. 
Parents cannot make this new nature any more than 
the gardener could have made this little tree ; but 
they may keep hurtful things from coming near to it, 
and use many things of forwarding its growth ; just 
as the gardener here does everything he thinks neces- 
sary toward the well-being of this delicate plant. 

Mrs. Browne. 1 am glad to see that you under- 



39^ 5" TORIES ILL US TRA TING, E TC. 

stand so much of this matter, my child. One ques;r 
tion more I must ask you : Could the gardener make 
the tree grow? 

" Oh no, godmother," said Mary, smiling. 

" Not the least in the world V said Mrs. Browne. 

" No, not the least — not even the breadth of a 
hair," said Mary. " Surely, godmother, you must 
be joking to ask such a question. God only can 
make trees to grow." 

Mrs. Browne. No, Mary, I am not joking ; I 
only want to make you understand that, as the most 
careful gardener cannot make a tree to grow even 
the breadth of a single hair, so the most careful 
parent cannot make grace to grow in the heart. 
The advancement of man's new nature is the work 
of God, and of God only. Therefore good parents, 
after labouring in proportion to their ability, must 
leave the rest to God. 

Mrs. Browne then taught Mary these verses : 
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but minis- 
ters by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to 
ever}' man ? I have planted, Apollos watered ; but 
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that 
planteth anything, neither he that watereth ; but 
God that giveth the increase." i Cor. iii. 5-7. 

Mrs. Browne then got up to walk home, and, as 
they went along she talked with Mary concerning 
the means which had been used by her parents, 
Sergeant and Mrs. Mills, to obtain for her the bless- 
ings of the Holy Spirit ; but as our chapter has 
already run to an unusual length, we will break off 
here, and relate the rest of the conversation at 
another time. 




STORY XXXV. 

Continuation on the New Birth. 

S Mrs. Browne and Mary were walking 
from the garden toward the barracks, Mrs. 
Browne took occasion to speak with Mary 
of the very great care that had been taken of her by 
both her parents even from her infancy. " You are 
now coming to an age, Mary," she said, " in which 
you should begin to know the value of pious parents : 
I shall, therefore, enter upon this subject with you. 
When your father and mother understood it to be 
the will of God that they should have a little one, 
they were earnest and frequent in prayer that the 
expected infant might be a child of God. This I 
perfectly know, for I was at that time in the same 
room with your mother ; and I well remember your 
father coming, one Sunday evening in particular, 
into our berth., with his Bible in his hand, pointing 
to these words of King David : ' I have been young, 
and now am old ; yet have I not seen the righteous 
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' Psalm xxxvii. 
25. And he put this question to my husband, re- 
specting the real intent and meaning of that verse : 
' Is it common bread only, or the bread of eternal 
34 397 



39S STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

life, which is promised to the seed of the righteous?' 
To which my husband replied, that he took the 
word bread in both senses ; and that he beheved 
firmly there was a particular blessing promised to 
the children of those who are made righteous 
through Christ. 

" Sergeant Mills answered, ' Then it appears that 
the child of a righteous man has a better inheritance 
than that of a king.' And he added, * O my God ! 
give me thy righteousness.' 

" Thus, Mary, you became the subject of your 
parents' pious thoughts and prayers even before you 
were born ; and, immediately after your birth they 
felt an anxious desire to choose such sponsors for you 
as they thought best fitted to fulfil the duties of that 
holy office. 

" Your godfather and second godmother were 
holy people ; and no doubt you are the better for 
their prayers. They are, as you well know, dead, 
and have been so for some years, 

" In the afternoon of your christening-day we all 
met in your father's berths and prayed, with one ac- 
cord, 1 may truly say, for your spiritual welfare. 

" Every care that could be taken of a baby was 
afterward taken of you. Your mother gave up her 
own pleasures and comforts, I might almost say en- 
tirely, for your sake, till you were able to walk ; 
leaving nothing undone that could have a tendency 
to promote your health and growth. But, though 
she was so exceedingly careful of your little body, 
her care of your soul was certainly more uncommon. 
I cannot say that she much corrected you under a 
year and a half or two years of age ; but she taught 



THE CATECHISM. 399 

you, before that time, to bear a denial with good- 
humour, freely to part with any little thing you pos- 
sessed, and also to come and go at the word of com- 
mand. When you began to talk, then her greater 
difficulties began ; because she lived, at that time, in 
an open barrack-room, where you were likely to 
hear and see everything tliat was evil. She prayed 
earnestly and frequently for you — ay, and wept often 
over you, as I myself have seen — when she considered 
what you were exposed to in that place. In these 
circumstances she besought the guidance of God, 
and he, I trust, heard her prayer ! 

" It was impossible to hide sin from you ; she 
therefore, as early as possible, made you acquainted 
with the commandments of God and our obligations 
to obey them. She showed you, also, where to seek 
assistance, to enable you to keep those command- 
ments ; determining firmly and resolutely to punish 
you, and that with considerable severity, whenever 
you should imitate any of the bad patterns set before 
you. No false tenderness ever held her hand back 
from chastising you when you were in fault, while 
on every other occasion she conducted herself toward 
you as the tenderest of mothers. 

" She never allowed you to play with other chil- 
dren, as you w^ell know, excepting with Thomas 
Francis ; and for this reason, because there are no 
other children in the regiment brought up in the fear 
of God. Nor would she suffer you to go into any- 
body's berth but mine and Mrs. Francis.' 

" There is nothing which ruins young people like 
evil company, lounging and idling about, as many 
children do, and wasting their time in sinful gossip- 



400 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

ping. Your mother never would allow of such 
things, but contrived that every part of your time 
should be taken up, and that either in her sight or 
mine. Not that she kept you always at your book or 
your work, because that is not good for young people 
nor, indeed, improving; but she had a way of mak- 
ing you useful in cleaning the berth and doing many 
little jobs which a rightly-taught child may do as 
well as a grown person, and which gives health and 
exercise at the same time. But what I have always 
most admired in your parents is the constant care 
which they have taken, and still take, to supply the 
spiritual part of their child with heavenly nourish- 
ment. While other parents are taking thought for 
the bodies only of their children, Sergeant and Mrs. 
Mills are chiefly anxious to procure the bread of life 
for theirs." 

Mary. I remember, godmother, how Mr. Grove's 
children asked for their daily bread in the morning, 
before breakfast ; and that I did not understand what 
they meant till Mr. Grove explained it to me, and 
showed me that our new nature can no more be sus- 
tained without the daily help of our Saviour than 
our body can be nourished without food. 

" I am glad that you remember this," said Mrs. 
Browne. "Your parents have always had it in mind 
that they must apply to God for your eternal welfare ; 
and as I, for some years past, have been the only 
person living who promised for you at your baptism, 
I have endeavoured to fulfil some part of my duty to- 
ward you. But the time is now coming when you 
must answer for yourself — you are no longer an in- 
fant. You know the answer to this question : 'Why 



THE CATECHISM. 401 

are Infiints baptized when by reason of their tender 
age they cannot perform them?' 

" I have told you now, Mary," added Mrs. Browne, 
" what has been done for you — everything that can 
be done by others. The only question now is, What 
have you done for yourself.^ The time will soon 
come, and perhaps is now come, when your god- 
fathers and godmothers will no longer be required to 
answer for you, but you must answer for yourself. 
Look, therefore, into your own bosom and ask your- 
self whether your heart has been changed : whether 
you love God and hate sin : loathing yourself for 
being a sinner, and glorying only in the cross of 
Christ?" 

Mary made no answer, but looked grave ; secretly 
feeling that she was very far from being all that 
she ought to be. 

Mrs. Browne then taught Mary the following 
verses; advising her, at the same time, earnestly to 
pray for that which is promised in them : " A new 
heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I 
put within you ; and I will take away the stony heart 
out of your flesh. And I w^ill put my spirit within 
you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye 
shall keep my commandments, and do them." Ezek. 
xxxvi, 26, 27. 

By this time Mrs. Browne and Mary were come 
in sight of the barracks, whence two or three women 
came running out to say that letters were arrived, 
giving notice of the return of the regiment ; for 
which Mrs. Browne thanked God, and went joyfully 
to her room. 

34 * 2 A 



STORY XXXVI. 



On the Sacrament of Baptism. 




N the beginning of the month of March the 
regiment returned to the barracks, and all, 
with God's blessing, in fine health and 
spirits. 

" When you first went," said Mrs. Browne to her 
husband, " I was tempted to think it doubly hard to 
be parted from you, my dear, and to have such a 
person as Mrs. Barnes thrust into your place ; but 
God has proved to my unbelieving heart that I was 
dissatisfied without reason." Slic then told her hus- 
band all that had happened relating to Mrs. Barnes 
while he was absent. 

You may be sure that the sergeant was well pleased 
with this account, and, having heard it, he expressed 
an earnest wish that Mrs Barnes might continue to 
do well unto the end. " For," said he, " it had been 
better for her not to have known the way to right- 
eousness than, after she hath known it, to turn from 
the holy commandment delivered unto her." 2 Pet. 
ii. 21. 

The Sunday after the return of the men proved a 
very rainy one, it being the time of the March 
showers : therefore, as Sergeant and Mrs Browne could 

402 



THE CATECHISM. 403 

not go so far as the church, they stepped over to Mrs. 
Francis' berth to drink tea with her, and to enjoy a 
little Christian conversation. 

They found Mrs. Francis very glad to see them, 
and Mrs. Mills and Mary already in the berth. 
While Mrs. Francis was setting the tea-things, Mrs. 
Mills said to Mrs. Browne, " We are pretty thick, 
methinks, in this berth., but we are nothing to the 
company at yonder end of the barracks, where that 
screen is. Why, they are going in and out like bees 
in a bee-hive ! and there's Mrs. Simpson in the midst 
of them as busy as the queen bee. What can be the 
matter?" 

" That is Corporal Freeman's berth" said Mrs. 
Francis. 

" Well," said Mrs. Mills, " and what are they all 
about !" 

Mrs. Francis smiled, and said, " Did not you hear 
that Mrs. Freeman had a little boy this morning 
during church-time ?" 

" Indeed !" said Mrs. Browne ; " I did not hear 
it." 

'' And those good folks," said Sergeant Browne, 
" are so kind as to bustle about the berths for fear 
the poor woman and her child should sleep them- 
selves to death. What would my poor mother have 
said if she had seen such doings?" 

At that moment Mrs. Dawson and Mrs. Burton 
came out from behind the screen, wiping their mouths 
as if they had been just drinking, and talking so loud 
that they were heard quite to the other end of the 
l^arrack. 

"Ho! ho!" said Sergeant Browne, smiling, "I 



404 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

see what's the attraction now : Corporal Freeman 
has provided a case-bottle or two of liquor to be 
drunk to the little boy's health." 

"Why, Sergeant Browne," said Mrs. Mills, "I 
thought you had been a soldier long enough not to 
wonder at these things." 

Mrs. Browne did not quite like this discourse ; so, 
seeing the sergeant about to answer, and fearing, by 
his manner, that he was about to say something 
which might give offence, she laid her hand upon 
his arm, and said, " Come, my dear, Mrs. Francis' 
tea is ready ; let us leave these folks to themselves, 
and mind our own matters. What have we to do 
with our neighbors' business .?" So they drank tea, 
and afterward read several chapters in the Bible ; 
when they parted for the night. 

In the mean time, Mrs. Simpson, who was in at- 
tendance on Mrs. Freeman, and who dealt out the 
liquor to all the visitors, did not fail, although she 
was so busy, to watch the company in Francis' berth. 
Afterward, on being left alone with Mrs. Freeman, 
she spoke to her as follows : " And so all the Metho- 
dists were in Francis' berth to-night drinking tea. 
Not a drop of liquor appeared on the occasion, but 
the Bible, you may be sure, was brought forward. 
And there was that little conceited thing, Mary Mills, 
among them. Mrs. Browne spoils that girl alto- 
gether. What does that girl stand in need of, I 
should like to know.'' but because she is her god- 
child she loads her with presents." Then Mrs. 
Simpson went on to describe all the presents which 
Mrs. Browne had lately made to Mary Mills, adding 



THE CATECHISM. 405 

many things out of her own head and magnifying 
the rest. 

Mrs. Freeman said nothing at the time, but the 
next morning, while she and her husband were alone 
together in the berth., said she, "Well, who do you 
mean to ask to stand for the boy ?" 

" Who have you thought of?" answered the cor- 
poral. " I leave such things to you." 

" Why," said she, " I should like Sergeant Browne 
as well as any one." 

" Sergeant Browne !" said the corporal ; " why, I 
never knew that you had any liking to that family. 
If I have heard you once laugh at him and his wife 
for being Methodists, I have heard you do it a hun- 
dred times. What is come over you now, that you 
want him to stand for our little lad.?" 

"' Oh !" said Mrs. Freeman, " if you have any ob- 
jection, take your own way." 

" I have no objection in the world," answered the 
corporal. " 1 don't think there is a better man than 
Sergeant Browne in our regiment, be the other who 
he will ; and I will go this evening, after parade, 
and ask him to answer for the child." 

Accordingly, in the evening, while the Sergeant 
and Mrs. Browne were drinking their tea. Corporal 
Freeman came in ; and, after having sat a while, he 
asked the sergeant if he would be so kind as to 
stand for his little lad. 

Sergeant Browne was somewhat surprised to be 
asked such a favour by a man with whom he had very 
little acquaintance. '"Freeman," said he, " it is not 
very often that I have been asked to stand for a child , 
for I am of a sort, I believe, that few folks much 



4o6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

like. However, as you have done me the favour to 
ask me, I would upon no account refuse you ; only, 
before I take upon me to be godfather to your child, 
it is necessary that you and your v^^ife should under- 
stand what you are to expect from me, and also 
what I shall expect from you." 

" Certainly, sergeant," said the corporal. 

" I consider the duty of a sponsor," added Ser- 
geant Browne, " as a very serious one. I am to 
stand up in the house of God, and in the presence 
of God, and in the name of your child I am to re- 
nounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp 
and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of 
the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh. In 
your child's name, also, I am to profess my belief 
in all the articles of the Christian faith, and my reso- 
lution to obey the holy commandments of God. It 
then becomes my duty — and a solemn duty it is — to 
see that the child is brought up in a manner answer- 
able to his baptismal vow. Accordingly, I shall be 
very apt, if I observe anything not agreeable to 
Christianity in the management of your child, to be 
speaking my mind more freely perhaps than you 
and your wife will like ; moreover, as long as we 
are together, I shall be for catechising him, and see- 
ing that he minds his Bible and keeps good com- 
pany." 

" Well, well," said the corporal, "' I am sure we 
shall not disagree about these things, sergeant. We 
shall always, as in duty bound, thank you for all that 
you may do for your godson." 

"So far well, corporal," said the sergeant; "but 
I have not quite said all I have to say yet. Do you 



THE CATECHISM. 407 

remember some talk that passed about five months 
back on the main-guard? You, and I, and Tim 
Greene, and Harry Bill were present." 

" What, upon the occasion of Mr. King's sermon.'^ 
To be sure, I do," said the corporal. 

" I was then," said the sergeant, " explaining to 
Greene that Baptism is a sacrament ; and showing 
to him that he who riots, and drinks, and talks 
lightly at a christening is guilty of the same sin as 
the Corinthians who profaned the Lord's Supper." 

"Ay, I remember all this," said the corporal. 

" The Corinthians, it seems," added Sergeant 
Browne, " brought upon themselves weakness, sick- 
ness, and even death, by their profanation of the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper." 

" So Mr. King said in his sermon," answered the 
corporal. 

" In like manner," added the sergeant, " we bring 
sickness and death on our families, very frequently, 
by profaning the sacrament of Baptism." 

" How is that.?" said the corporal. 

" How common among us it is," replied Sergeant 
Browne, "for the mother and child to do very well 
till the christening ! and how often do we see them, 
as soon as the bustle, and noise, and intemperance 
of the christening is over, taken sick and die ! I 
could not count the number of infants whom I have 
known, since I came to the regiment, destroyed 
through these intemperate meetings. The mother 
at such a season is generally weak ; she heats and 
hurries herself, before the time comes, in making 
great preparations ; and at the time, ^^erhaps, is per- 
suaded to take a glass or two more than common ; she 



4o8 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

is fatigued with the noise and talk of the company ; 
she becomes feverish, and her heated milk gives the 
poor baby complaints in the bowels, fevers and con- 
vulsions, not seldom ending in death ; while she 
herself probably brings on some sickness from which 
she never perfectly recovers. And all this from the 
profanation of the sacrament of Baptism ; not to 
speak of the waste of a man's substance which it oc- 
casions at a time when he wants all he can raise for 
the support of his wife and child." 

"Well, sergeant?" said the corporal. 

"Well," repeated the sergeant, "you want to 
know what's to be the end of this long preamble. 
It is this ; that you don't mean to make a drinking- 
bout of your little boy's christening, I hope. Let us 
meet at church in the morning, and when your wife 
is quite well, I and mine will come and take a com- 
fortable dish of tea with her." 

"If we do not as others do, sergeant," said the 
corporal, " what will folks say .^" 

" It matters little, to my thinking, what folks say," 
answered the sergeant. " But, to be quite plain 
with you, corporal, I cannot have anything to do as 
to answering for your little lad unless you resolve 
that the afternoon of the christening-day shall be 
spent in a sober, pious manner." 

The corporal looked serious, and answered that 
he must consult his wife upon it. So he took his 
leave. 

Sergeant Browne heard no more of Corporal 
Freeman or of his boy till the Sunday three weeks 
after the birth of the child. When morning service 
at the church was over, Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. 



THE CATECHISM. 409 

Simpson, with Sergeant Burton and Tim Greene, 
came up to the clergyman, bringing the infant to be 
christened. So we may suppose that Mrs. Freeman 
did not approve of Sergeant Browne's proposal. 

As Mrs. Browne passed them to go out of the 
church, she stopped to look at the baby. It was a 
very fine little boy ; and she could not help being 
sorry in her heart that its parents had given up the 
thought of having her husband for its godfather. 
That same evening, as Mrs. Browne was going to 
church, Mrs. Francis overtook her. "Oh! Mrs. 
Browne," she said, " what an uproar there is in our 
barracks ! Corporal Freeman's berths and Sergeant 
Burton's room, which you know, is next to it, are 
both full. Such doings ! Poor Mrs. Freeman has 
been bustling all day to get things together. It will 
be well if she is not ill after it." 

"Who are the company.?" said Mrs. Browne. 

" I saw the sergeant-major and his wife," an- 
swered Mrs. Francis, " Sergeant and Mrs. Burton, 
Sergeant and Mrs. Simpson, and Timothy Greene ; 
but the rest of the company I saw not." 

On Mrs. Francis' return from church the company 
were still in the corporal's bei'th; and they continued, 
by favour of Sergeant Burton, drinking and singing 
till near eleven, at which time the sergeant dispersed 
them. But the barrack was scarcely quiet, when 
Mrs. Francis, who had just dropped asleep, was 
awakened by Mrs. Freeman's child crying as if it 
would go into fits. Mrs. Francis got up, and, put- 
ting her clothes on in haste, ran to the berth to see 
what was the matter. 

" I cannot think, Mrs. Francis," said Mrs. Free- 

35 



41 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

man, who was sitting up in bed trying to hush the 
child, " what ails the boy. He was quite well this 
morning, but about eight o'clock this evening he 
began to be uneasy, appearing to be griped, and 
breaking out into a burning heat. Mrs. Simpson, 
however, gave him a sup of gin and water, and that 
quieted him till now." 

The poor child screamed so that Mrs. Francis 
could hear no more of what Mrs. Freeman said. 
She took the poor baby in her arms and found that 
his stomach was burning hot. " I have about a 
table-spoonful of castor oil," said Mrs. Francis. 
"Shall I fetch it.^ The child's bowels are greatly 
disordered." 

" Castor oil, woman !" said Mrs. Burton, coming 
out of her room at that instant ; " wdiat's that to do} 
Where's the gin bottle, Mrs. Freeman } Give him a 
sup in water with sugar." 

It was in vain that Mrs. Francis begged they 
would not give the child any more strong liquor. 
Mrs. Burton took the child from her and bade her go 
to her own berth and mind her own affairs. So 
Mrs. Francis, finding that she could do no good, 
went back to her berth. 

The poor child soon ceased crying, being quite 
overcome with the gin which Mrs. Burton gave it. 
But the next morning he was seized with convulsion 
fits, and his mother also complained of great pain 
in her limbs, with other symptoms of such a nature 
that the doctor ordered her to the hospital. 

Mrs. Freeman had heated herself very much the 
day before, and while she was hot had caught a 
violent cold, either by sitting opposite the door of 



THE CATECHISM. 41 1 

the sergeant's room, or by sitting up in the night 
with the child. Her fever continued to increase, till 
at night she grew quite delirious, and the poor child, 
having now no support from his mother, became 
worse and worse. The end of this sad story is, that 
in a few days the mother was a corpse, and the child 
so ill that Corporal Freeman ordered the mother's 
coffin to be made wide enough to receive the infant, 
who departed this life before the coffin was brought 
home. 

All the women in the barracks who were able 
went down to the hospital to attend the funeral, as 
also did many of the sergeants, and among the rest 
Sergeant Browne. 

Mrs. Browne, Mrs. Francis and Mrs. Mills shed 
many tears when they saw the dear baby lying in 
the coffin on his mother's arm, the side of his sweet, 
pale face ( for he was a very pretty baby) resting 
against his mother's breast. 

" Oh !" said Mrs. Browne softly to her friends, 
" had my husband's advice been followed this had 
not happened." 

" Mrs. Browne," answered Mrs. Francis, " we 
know that, as far as this dear child is concerned at 
least, all is for the best. God loves these little ones, 
and takes many of them to himself in his tender 
mercy. Our beloved Saviour said, ' Suffer little 
children to come unto me, for of such is the king- 
dom of heaven.' " Matt. xix. 14. 

" And there is another sweet verse concerning 
little children," added Mrs. Mills: '"Take heed that 
ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto 
you that in heaven their angels do always behold 



412 STORIES ILLUSTRATING, ETC. 

the face of my Father which is in heaven.'" Matt, 
xviii. lo. 

Poor Corporal Freeman was heartbroken for a 
while at the loss of his wife and child, and blamed 
himself greatly for not having followed the wise and 
pious counsel of Sergeant Brow^ne. And I wish all 
those who read this story would consider the sinful- 
ness of profaning the sacrament of Baptism, which 
is too common a thing among us ; for Mrs. Freeman 
is not the only w^oman, by many thousands, who has 
suffered the punishment due to this crime, nor is 
Corporal Freeman the only man who has lost a wife, 
a child, or both, in consequence of riotous doings at 
a christening. 




STORY XXXVII. 




On the Sacrament of the Lord^s Supper. 

RS. BROWNE was one of those who, by 
God's help, seldom lost sight of her duty. 
She had undertaken to answer for Mary 
Mills at her baptism, and had always in mind the 
exhortation made by the minister to godfathers and 
godmothers at the conclusion of the baptismal 
service ; she, therefore, took every opportunity of 
giving instruction to her little goddaughter, so that 
there were few children so well acquainted with the 
sense of the Church Catechism as was Mary Mills. 

One part only now remained to be gone over with 
Mary, and that was the part which relates especially 
to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Mrs. Browne, 
being mindful of this, waited only a proper oppor- 
tunity for questioning Mary on this latter part of the 
Catechism, and it was not long before one offered 
itself much to the purpose. 

Mary had come one morning to spend the day 
with her godmother, and they were sitting at work 
in a shady part of the verandah^ in the front of Ser- 
geant Browne's room, when a procession of sweeper- 
women, or matraneys^ came up the road from the 
officers' bungalows^ and passing in front of the bar- 

35* 413 



414 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

racks went off toward the great bazar. These women 
had a goat which they were leading along, and as 
they passed they sung, or chanted, some words which 
Mrs. Browne and Mary could not understand. 

The tune which they sang was slow and melan- 
choly. Mary watched them till they were out of 
sight ; then turning to Mrs. Browne, she said, " What 
are those women about, godmother.'* Why do they 
take that goat with them, and go singing along in 
such a dismal manner?" 

" Those women, Mary," answered Mrs. Browne, 
" are going to sacrifice that goat to some of their gods." 

Mary. What, godmother, is it common for the 
people in this countr}^ to make sacrifices.'' I thought 
no people did so now. 

"' Nay, my dear," replied Mrs. Browne ; " surely, 
you, who have lived all your life in this countr)^ 
among idolaters, could not think such a thing. All 
idolaters throughout the world oflfer sacrifices of some 
sort ; and by this they acknowledge their belief that, 
without shedding of blood, there is no remission of 
sin, Heb. ix. 22 ; though they have not come to 
the knowledge that it is not possible that the blood 
of bulls and of goats should take away sin." Heb. 
X. 4. 

Mary. I do not quite understand what you mean, 
godmother. 

Mrs. Browne. Well, then, I will talk with you 
a little further on this subject, and see if I can make 
you understand it. And, first of all, in order to ob- 
tain a clear view of this matter, you are to bear in 
your mind that God is and always must be perfectly 
just, or he could not be a perfect being. 



THE CATECHISM. 415 

Mary. What is being just, godmother, in the 
way you speak of? 

Mi'S. Broiviie. A just person pays every one 
what is exactly due to them ; neither more nor less. 
So God pays exactly what is due to every creature. 
He rewards those who behave well, and punishes 
those who behave ill, in the exact degree in which 
they have deserved rewards or punishments. Do 
you understand now, Mary, what I mean v/hen I say 
that God is perfectly just? 

Mary. Yes, I do, godmother ; but I don't like to 
hear you talk in this manner. 

Mrs. Browne. Why, Mary ? 

Mary. Because, if God is quite just, and punishes 
every man according to his faults, you know we 
must all go down to hell. 

Mrs. Browne. My dear, you have said no more 
than what is true ; and it was for this purpose — 
narhely, to bring all the race of mankind thither — 
that the devil tempted our first parents to commit 
sin. But here we see the wonderful wisdom and 
goodness of God. When mankind had, by their dis- 
obedience, incurred everlasting punishment, God the 
Son, assuming the nature of man, and descending 
upon this earth, fulfilled all his Father's laws, but 
took upon him the sins of all mankind, and endured 
upon the cross our punishment. These words, in 
the Book of Psalms, are spoken in the person of 
this our beloved Saviour : " Then said I, Lo, I come ; 
in the volume of the book it is written of me, I de- 
light to do thy will, O my God ; yea, thy law is 
within my heart. I have preached righteousness in 
the great congregation ; lo, I have not refrained my 



41 6 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

lips, O Lord, thou knowest." Psalm xl. 7-9. In 
this manner the justice of God was satisfied, that we 
might be saved ; for the only-begotten Son of God 
suffered for us, the just for the unjust ; his blood was 
poured out and shed for us upon the cross, and his 
life given up for ours. The promise that he should 
come to die for us was given to our first parents im- 
mediately after the fall ; and, from that time, animal 
sacrifices were used in worship of God, by his own 
appointment, as signs and types of the great sacrifice 
of the death of Christ. 

Mary. But Christians do not sacrifice animals 
now ! 

" Heathens continue to use such sacrifices," an- 
swered Mrs. Browne, " though they do not know 
why ; but Christians, knowing that the great sacri- 
fice of the death of Christ is past, have no longer 
any need of those lesser sacrifices which were but 
signs, or shadows, of the greater one." 

Mary. But who taught these poor heathens to 
sacrifice animals.'^ 

Mrs. Browne. Why you know, my dear, that all 
the nations in the world are descended from Noah. 
You read of Noah making sacrifices ; and he cer- 
tainly knew the true intent and meaning of those 
solemn offerings. But while his descendants, in 
many parts of the world, still keep up that ancient 
custom, they are totally unacquainted with the na- 
ture of its original institution. 

Mary. That is like people who take their chil- 
dren to be baptized because others do it, though they 
know no good reason why. 

Mrs. Browne. There are many persons who 



THE CATECHISM. 417 

have not had the advantage of being taught their 
duty ; we should pity such persons. But to speak 
further on the subject of the sacrifice of the death of 
Christ : What do Christians now do in remembrance 
of that sacrifice ? 

Mary considered a while, but seemed at a loss 
what to answer. 

Mrs. Browne. We have often talked together 
about the sacrament of Baptism, and I hope that you 
are, in some degree, acquainted with the nature of 
it. Can you tell me wherefore the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper was ordained? 

Mary. Oh ! godmother, now I know ; "• For the 
continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death 
of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive 
thereby." 

Mrs. Browne. You understand, then, that the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper was ordained for 
the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the 
death of Christ, and also of the benefits which we 
receive thereby. Now what do we gain by the 
death of Christ? 

Mary. Everything that is good, both in this 
world and the next. 

Mrs. Browne. If you will take your Bible and 
turn to I Cor. xi. 23 and following verses, you will 
find a short account by St. Paul of the first institu- 
tion of the Loi'd's Supper ; and I would advise you 
to get these verses by heart. What is the next ques- 
tion in your Catechism? 

Mary. "What is the outward part, or sign, of 
the Lord's Supper?" 

Mrs. Browne. You recollect, my dear, that each 
2 B 



41 S STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

sacrament has two parts — the outward part, which 
we may perceive by our senses ; and the inward 
part, which can only be received by faith. What, 
then, is the outward part of the Lord's Supper? 

Mary. " Bread and wine, which the Lord hath 
commanded to be received." 

Mrs. Browne. What is the inward part, or thing 
signified ? 

Mary. " The body and blood of Christ, which 
are verily and indeed taken and received by the 
faithful in the Lord's Supper." 

Mrs. Browne. I must now recal to your mind, 
Mary, what Mr. Grove taught you about bread, and 
what I, also, have often repeated to you, that bread 
is a sign, or type of Christ, who supports the new 
and spiritual nature of the renewed man, in the 
same manner as bread supports the body. Wine 
also is the sign of the blood of Christ ; for as our 
Lord, in the fifteenth chapter of St. John, calls him- 
self the true vine, so his blood is signified by the 
juice of the grape. Thus, when persons, in the 
Lord's Supper, received the bread and wine in faith, 
they become partakers of the body and blood of 
Christ. Their sins are washed away by the Saviour's 
blood, and their new nature is strengthened by his 
body, which is the bread of life. 

Mary. But still, godmother, I do not quite know 
what is meant by these words : " Verily and indeed 
taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's 
Supper." Do people really eat the body and drink 
the blood of the Lor^l Jesus Christ in the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper.? 

Mrs. Browne. My dear, you now forget what I 



THE CATECHISM. 419 

have just told you, that each sacrament consists of 
two parts ; the one outward, which every person 
may see and understand ; the other inward, which 
can only be understood and received by faith, as it is 
written in i Cor. ii. 14: " The natural man receiveth 
not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are 
foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned." Accordingly, 
the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper may be 
eaten and drunk by any person ; but the body and 
blood of Christ can only be received by him that is 
made new in Christ, and that in a manner which 
the world cannot comprehend. By trying to explain 
this mystery, and how it takes place, much evil has 
been done. 

Mary. Are not all these things rather hard to 
be understood by people so young as *I am, god- 
mother.? 

Mrs. Browne. It is not merely your being young, 
my dear, that makes these things appear dark and 
difficult to you ; since no person whatever can under- 
stand them, except such as are taught by the Spirit 
of God, as we find it written in St. John xvi. 13 : 
" Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he 
will guide you into all truth ; for he shall not speak 
of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall 
he speak ; and he will show you things to come." 

Mary. I will pray that I may be able to under- 
stand these things. 

Mrs. Browne. After what we have been saying, 
you will not find it difficult to understand the answer 
to this question : What are the benefits whereof we 
are partakers by the Lord's Supper.? 



420 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Maiy. " The strengthening and refreshing of 
our souls by the body and blood of Christ, as our 
bodies are by the bread and wine." 

M7's. Browne. What is the explanation of this 
answer? 

Mary, That the bod}^ and blood of Christ, being 
received by faith, strengthen our souls, as much as 
bread and wine do our bodies. 

Mrs. jBrow7ze. I took a great deal of pains, a 
little while ago, to explain to you the nature of the 
sacrament of Baptism ; and to-day I have been try- 
ing to make you understand the nature of the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper. Before I go any further, 
I should like to know if you understand the difference 
between these two sacraments. What is the sacra- 
ment of Baptism designed to give us, if received in 
faith? 

" Have you not told me, godmother," answered 
Mary, " that it is designed to give us a new life?" 

" Very well, my dear," said Mrs. Browne. " And 
what is the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to do 
for us?" 

Mary thought a little while, and then she said, 
" Is it not to strengthen the new life which we have 
received ?" 

Mrs. Browne, being satisfied with Mary's answer, 
proceeded to ask her the last question in the Cate- 
chism : "What is required of them who come to the 
Lord's Supper?" 

Mary. "To examine themselves whether they 
repent them truly of their former sins, steadfastly 
proposing to lead a new life, have a lively faith in 
God's mercy through Christ, with a thankful remem- 



THE CATECHISM. 421 

brance of his death, and be in charity with all 
men." 

Mrs. Browne was going to ask Mary the explana- 
tion of this question, and to add a few words on the 
apostolic rite of confirmation, or laying on of hands, 
when they were interrupted by a visit from Mrs. 
Simpson. 

NOTE. 

In the American Catechism we read the words 
'''•spiritually taken," instead of the English "verily 
and indeed." Both expressions mean the same 
thing : that which is spiritual being more real than 
anything carnal or corporal. 

Editor. 








STORY XXXVIII. 

Continuation on the Sacrament of the LorcTs Supper. 

HE Sunday before Whit-Sunday, Mr. King 
gave notice to the congregation that it was 
his intention, God being willing, to admin- 
ister the holy sacrament of the body and blood of 
Christ on the following Sunday. That same after- 
noon, there being no service in the church, as Mr. 
King was sent for elsewhere on duty, Mrs. Browne 
called for Mary to take a walk with her, and they 
took the way toward the soldiers' burying-ground. 

It had been much talked of about that time that 
the regiment would soon leave Cawnpore, where it 
had been stationed now nearly five years ; and Mrs. 
Browne, as she walked slowly with her goddaughter 
over the dry and sandy plain which lies between the 
barracks and the burying-ground, thought of the 
various events that had come to pass during the time 
in which the regiment had lain in that place. Many 
persons belonging to the regiment, who had come to 
Cawnpore in perfect health, were now dead. Some 
had risen in the world, and some had fallen ; some 
had been blessed with promising children, and others 
had laid their babies in the dust; some had profited 

422 



THE CATECHISM. 423 

by the blessed privilege of hearing the word of God 
from the mouth of Mr. King, and might hope to be 
the better for it both here and hereafter ; but these 
were few. The greater part of the regiment, both 
high and low, were seeking only to please them- 
selves, and to enjoy the present moment, heedless 
of all that might happen in future. 

Mrs. Browne's mind being full of these things, she 
walked silently on, and Mary did not disturb her 
godmother's thoughtful state by talking to her. They 
passed near several biutgalows standing in gardens 
and by the corner of the great bazar ; and drawing 
near the burying-ground, they walked for a certain 
distance under its mud wall, above which appeared 
many tall trees, together with the pointed tops of a 
few of the highest tombs. Mrs. Browne and Mary 
then entered by a narrow door in the wall, near 
which sat the cJiockedaur of the burying-ground. 

As Mrs. Browne stepped in, she turned to Mary 
and said, " How many are here, who, five years ago, 
came to this place with our regiment in better health 
than myself! Many younger than you, Mary, now 
lie here. Oh ! that by considering these things we 
may apply our hearts unto wisdom." 

The graveyard was full of tombs ; those nearest 
the gate were for the most part so old, that many 
of them had fallen into a state of great decay ; while 
others had become so black from the rain and dust 
that the inscriptions they bore could not be made 
out. 

"When I come into this kind of place," said 
Mary, "death appears to be very shocking ; and I 
think that for the future I will be so good that I will 



424 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

do nothing but read, and pray, and serve God ; but 
when I get back into company, I forget all my good 
resolutions." 

" It would be well for us, my dear," answered 
Mrs. Browne, " if we could keep our good resolu- 
tions ; but the nature of man is so bad and so de- 
praved that neither the thought of death, nor even 
the fear of hell, can keep him from sin. Those who 
see death oftenest, and have most to do among the 
dead, are frequently the most irreligious among men. 
Neither would the place of torment itself, if thrown 
open before them, produce any change in their 
character. None but Christ — none but our dying 
Saviour — nothing but a believing view of the bleed- 
ing Lamb can break our stubborn hearts. It is the 
truest wisdom, my child, to seek Christ ; he is that 
bread of life which came down from heaven, which 
if a man eat, he shall live for ever." John vi. 33, 
50, 58. 

" It was our Lord Jesus Christ," answered Mary, 
" that changed Mrs. Barnes' heart, and made her 
good." 

" Look round, my dear," said Mrs. Browne, " on 
all these tombs. I cannot count them ; they are 
without number. Some of the persons now lying in 
these graves were rich, that is, for their station ; 
some were handsome ; some had much worldly 
wisdom and cunning ; and many of them, no doubt, 
were admired for their several qualifications and at- 
tainments ; but if they lived and died in a state of 
estrangement from the Saviour, all their best proper- 
ties were unprofitable and vain. We were at first 
made, my dear child, in the image of God. By the 



THE CATECHISM. 425 

sin of our first parents we lost that beautiful image ; 
by uniting ourselves with our Redeemer while we 
are in the flesh, we have an assurance of recovering 
it ; but if we fail to do this in life, we lose the op- 
portunity for ever." 

Coming opposite a little white tomb just as Mrs. 
Browne ceased speaking, they stopped to read the in- 
scription. It was to the memory of a little girl of ten 
years of age, of so heavenly and holy a frame of mind 
that, by her example, she had been the means, under 
God, of turning an irreligious parent to the Lord. On 
the bottom of the inscription w^ere these words : " I 
shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." 
Psalm xvii. 15. 

" Ten years old !" said Mary ; " I am ten years 
old, and have had pious friends, yet I am not like 
this little girl." As she spoke, the tears came into 
her eyes, and ran down her cheeks ; but she tried to 
wipe them away unperceived ; so Mrs. Browne took 
no notice of them. 

Close by this grave were the tombs of Dick Price 
and Fanny Bell. Mrs. Browne and Mary stood a 
while looking at them, but they did not speak ; for 
what could they say.? only they felt very sorrowful. 
So they passed on ; and turning round a high tomb, 
who should they see but Mrs. Barnes, sitting all 
alone upon a stone, and in a thoughtful mood. 

Mrs. Barnes started at the sound of steps, but 
when she looked up and saw who was coming, 
"Oh! Mrs. Browne," said she, "is it you.? I ant- 
glad to see you. I slipped out this evening for the 
sake of a little retirement, which a body cannot 
enjoy in the barracks ; and seeing the door of this 

36 * 



426 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

ground open, I came in ; and I have been blessing 
God that I was not numbered among those who lie 
here while I remained a stranger to Him who has 
taken out the sting of death. ' O death, where is 
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The 
sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the 
law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' " i Cor. xv. 

54-57- 

As it was still early in the evening, Mrs. Browne 

and Mary sat down upon the stone by Mrs. Barnes ; 
and Mrs. Browne put this question to Mrs. Barnes : 
" In what state of mind is any one properly pre- 
pared for death ?" 

"You, Mrs. Browne," replied Mrs. Barnes, "are 
the fitter person to answer this question, seeing that 
I am as yet but a child in Christ. But I take it that 
the proper state of a dying man is made up of a 
full persuasion of his sin and misery, mixed with an 
entire dependence on his Saviour for salvation." 

" To the best of my poor judgment you have 
answered right, Mrs. Barnes," said Mrs. Browne ; 
" and I should suppose that this also is the state 
of mind requisite for a proper attendance on the 
Lord's Supper." 

" I wish," answered Mrs. Barnes, " that I were 
fit to attend the Lord's Supper next Sunday. I was 
confirmed when quite a child, but I was ill prepared 
for what I undertook ; I never received this sacra- 
ment ; and I am so much afraid of receiving it un- 
worthily that I hardly durst go now." 

" Hardly durst go !" said Mrs. Browne. " I would 
rather say I durst not stay away. If we consider 



THE CATECHISM. 427 

that it is the express command of our dear Lord, 
and, in a manner, his dying command, that we 
should do this in remembrance of him, how can 
we hesitate about whether we should do it or not? 
Suppose your son had made it a last request to you 
that you would do some certain thing in remem- 
brance of him ; would you fail to do it? And what 
is your son to you, dear as he is, when compared 
with your Lord and Saviour?" 

" Oh ! Mrs. Browne," answered Mrs. Barnes, " it 
is not that I am unwilling to go to the Lord's 
Supper, but that I know myself so utterly unworthy 
to appear there. I feel that I am a very great and 
helpless sinner." 

Mrs. Browne. As to your knowing yourself to 
be a sinner, supposing that you sincerely hate your 
sins, and resolve, with God's help, to forsake them, 
these are the very things, which make you fit to 
partake of the body and blood of our Lord. It was 
for poor sinners that his precious body was broken 
and his blood shed. He came not to cure those 
who are whole, but those who are sick. Then what 
does our Lord himself say? "Except ye eat the 
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye 
have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and 
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
raise him up at the last day." John vi. 53, 54. 

" Still my unworthiness," said Mrs. Barnes, " seems 
to hold me back ; though I know it is wrong." 

"We are all unworthy — all sinners, Mrs. Barnes,'* 
said Mrs. Browne. " There is not a day, nor an 
hour of our lives, in which we do not fall into sin 
through the depravity and weakness of our nature ; 



428 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

but, if we do not allow ourselves In sin, our un- 
worthiness should not hold us back from the Lord's 
table. For example : If I bear malice or ill-will in 
my heart against a neighbour ; or if I live in any 
habit of intemperance, or dishonesty, or overreach- 
ing — I mock God by partaking of the holy sacra- 
ment until I have resolved to give up these things. 
But I hope this is not your case, Mrs. Barnes ; I 
hope you do not allow yourself in any sin. For 
instance, your husband is pay-sergeant ; I trust you 
do not suffer yourself to make any profit upon the 
poor men." 

"I once did so," replied Mrs. Barnes, "and had 
many ways of doing it, particularly when I saw a 
man in liquor ; but I thank God, since he has been 
pleased to touch my heart, I have been no longer 
tempted in this way." 

"I thank God, too, for this. Airs. Barnes," said 
Mrs. Browne ; " for I once knew a sergeant's wife 
(poor Vi'oman ! she lies buried not a stone's throw 
from hence) who was sadly hindered in her way to 
heaven, if not altogether lost at last, by giving way 
to temptations of this kind — by lending the men 
money, upon usury, for the purchase of drink ; by 
paying them in bad pice ; and by many other such 
contrivances. If you have nothing of this sort on 
your mind, Mrs. Barnes, bearing, as I said before, 
no ill-will to your neighbours, and living in sober- 
ness and chastity, I cannot see why you are to hold 
yourself back from the Lord's Supper. We are all 
sinners, as I said before ; and as to our unworthi- 
ness, we must all confess it." 

"There is much truth in what you say," said Mrs. 



THE CATECHISM. 429 

Barnes ; " I shall take a day or two to consider the 
matter, and to look into myself." 

"And God give you grace," replied Mrs. Browne, 
"to search your heart; and may he bestow the same 
favour upon me also, that we may know and utterly 
forsake our sins, be they ever so secret or hidden 
from the eye of man." 

By this time, it was proper for them to be going 
home ; and the next Sunday Mrs. Barnes went with 
Mrs. Browne to the holy sacrament of the body and 
blood of Christ. Nor was it long before the bishop 
of Calcutta came to Cawnpore, and Mary Mills, 
having been duly examined and prepared by Mr. 
King, was confirmed, and in like manner became a 
partaker of the Holy Communion ; having, in con- 
formity to our excellent Catechism, first examined 
herself whether she repented truly of her former 
sins, steadfastly purposing to lead a new life, having 
a lively faith in God's mercy, through Christ, with a 
thankful remembrance of his death, and being in 
charity with all men. 



STORY XXXIX 

CoTicltisioji. 




LITTLE after Mary's confirmation tlie 
regiment was ordered to England, and I 
could gain no information of any persons 
belonging to it till I was favoured with the sight of 
a letter written by James Law, dated from his own 
town, Brampton, in Cumberland, to his brother 

Thomas, private in the regiment of foot, then 

stationed at Cawnpore, in the East Indies. 

It seems that Thomas Law was in the same regi- 
ment with his brother ; but, upon its being ordered 
home, he had volunteered to go into that by which 
it was relieved. His wish to stay in India proceeded 
from the hope he entertained of doing some good 
among the poor natives of India. Thomas Law 
understood the Hindoostaunee language well, having 
been instructed by Mr. King ; and he used to devote 
all his spare hours to teach a few little coolie and 
cook-boys to read the Scripture in Hindoostaunee, 
and to repeat the Catechism in that tongue. In the 
prospect of still doing some little good in this way, 
he chose to continue in India, instead of going 
home, although he had served his time and was 
entitled to a pension. Some persons called him a 

430 



THE CATECHISM. 43 ^ 

fool for his pains ; but whether he was so or not, 
will be seen at the last day. He was so good 
as to give me leave to take a copy of his brother's 
letter : 

James Law's Letter, dated from Brampton, in Cum- 
berland, November 8, i8 — . 

My Dear Brother: — A young gentleman from 
our parts, who is going out lieutenant to your regi- 
ment, is so obliging as to say that he will be the 
bearer of this, and put it into your own hands, God 
being willing. He takes leave of this place after 
Christmas, so that I shall have time to write you a 
long letter. And first, I will tell you how I found all 
friends here. Mother looks exceedingly well, God 
be thanked ! For the matter of that, she seems 
fresher and younger than I do, as all the neighbours 
say ; but then she has not been scorched and dried 
up as we have under the burning sun of India. She 
is a little dim-sighted ; otherwise, she is as fit for work 
as ever. We have taken one of the small houses 
opposite the little round hill where you and I used 
to clamber up the fir trees after the crossbills. It is 
a pleasant situation enough, having a prospect as far 
as to the borders of Scotland. Sister, as you know, 
is become a widow, and lives with us, with her little 
lad and two little lasses ; so that we are a snug party 
in the long dark evenings ; mother and sister work- 
ing with their needles, and I reading to them and 
teaching the young ones. I find fault here with 
nothing but the cold ; mother, however, has made 
me some very warm clothing ; so, thank God ! I am 
now pretty well armed against that. Mother is quite 



432 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

reconciled to your staying behind. " So as my dear 
children are employed in the service of their Re- 
deemer," said she, " I care not where they be." So 
set your mind at ease on that matter. 

Our old neighbours are many of them dead and 
gone ; but Nurse Bell and old John Gray send their 
love. They come, w^ith one or two more, on Sun- 
day evenings to hear me read. 

And now for our voyage, and about your old 
friends in the regiment. The first mischance which 
befel us after embarking in the boats to go down 
from Cawnpore to Calcutta was the loss of Mrs. 
Burton — Peggy Thompson that was. She took a 
dram extraordinar}^ one afternoon, and fell overboard, 
and was never seen more. Poor soul ! I thought of 
what you once had occasion to quote to me : Psalm 
xxxvii. 1-4 : " Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, 
neither be thou envious against the workers of in- 
iquity : for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, 
and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord 
and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and 
verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the 
Lord ; and he shall give thee the desires of thine 
heart." 

At Patna, where we stopped as much as three 
days, Charlotte James went off with a young spark 
of a civilian, with whom she had some acquaintance 
before. Her father, poor man ! took it much to heart, 
and would have taken her back, disgraced as she 
was ; but the girl would not come. Oh ! that pa- 
rents would but bring up their children in the fear 
of the Lord, with singleness of heart ! 

Between Patna and Bar we had a terrible squall, 



THE CATECHISM. 433 

and the boat in which Hicks and his wife were, was 
overset. She, poor body ! was dragged out of the 
water for dead ; but the doctor recovered her from 
drowning only that she might fret herself to death ; 
for her great chest, in which lay all that was dear to 
her heart, was lost. We could not find it. It was, 
I reckon, carried down by the stream. In this chest, 
besides all her clothes, were several bonds and se- 
curities for money — some from our paymaster, who 
assured her that as soon as they reached Calcutta, 
she should have all her due from him, notwithstand- 
ing. But some other folks in whose hands her 
money lay might not, perhaps, be so honest ; and 
the fear of this fretted her so that she actually fell 
sick and died. We buried her on the river's bank, 
about two days' distance from Calcutta. I question 
whether, had she laid up her treasure in heaven, 
this would have happened: "for godliness is profi- 
table unto all things, having promise of the life 
that now is, and of that which is to come." i Tim. 
iv. 8. 

I fell into company with Kitty Spence at Calcutta. 
She had been sent there, you know, to be tried for 
the murder of Fanny Bell ; but that she intended to 
murder that unfortunate young woman could not be 
proved against her. Nevertheless, though she es- 
caped hanging, I never saw a more miserable crea- 
ture. Her husband was kind to her, and would 
have had her to come on board ship with the regi- 
ment ; but she had made acquaintance with some 
poor, low, wicked wretches of our countrymen 
living in Calcutta ; and though we once or twice 
caught sight of her, yet she contrived to get away 
37 2C 



434 STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

again from us ; and at the time of our embarking 
for Europe she was not to be found. She is a poor 
lost soul, I greatly fear ; God help her ! 

Our regiment was shipped in two vessels, the 
Crown and the Bengal Merchant. All your particu- 
lar friends were embarked in one of these ships, ex- 
cepting myself and Corporal Freeman, who, thank 
God ! is become as sober as any other person. We 
had such a set about us ! many a time did my heart 
bleed to hear the light conversation, the loud curses, 
and the horrid blasphemies that were daily renewed 
among them. Mrs. Dawson ; Price, his wife and 
daughter ; Sergeant Burton ; John Roberts ; Bob 
Roe and Corporal Harris were with us. And, oh! 
how did they go on ! But I need not describe to 
you how ungodly folks go on at sea. 

What with the bad air, the stench of tobacco and 
liquor, the rolling of the ship, and the horrible lan- 
guage, I never passed through so miserable a season 
before. We lost poor Mrs. Dawson at sea, and I 
verily believe from nothing but hard drinking. I 
strove to put in a few words on religious subjects 
when I found her in danger, but. was forbidden by 
the sergeant-major to come near her. 

We parted from the Crown near the Land's End, 
and she reached home as much as three weeks before 
us. She went into Plymouth, and we into Ports- 
mouth. 

Although it was in the month of July that we 
reached Old England, it was rainy, drizzly weather, 
and we found it very cold. 

I never saw such poor, miserable, dirty, helpless 
creatures as our women appeared to be, for the most 



THE CATECHISM. 435 

part, when set down at Portsmouth, with their white 
muslin gowns and coloured shoes, trailing and 
shivering along Portsmouth street, where many of 
them were without money, having spent all before 
them in India. 

Poor Nelly Price, though but a child as it were, 
had taken to bad courses on board ship ; and now, 
finding poverty and hardships staring in her face, 
she left her parents and took to a way of life followed 
by many poor wretches in Portsmouth. 

Such of us as were entitled to our discharges re- 
ceived them at Portsmouth ; upon which I was going 
to set out immediately for Brampton, and had written 
to my mother accordingly, when I was taken with a 
rheumatic fever, and laid up till winter in hospital. 
I was therefore obliged to defer my journey till the 
ensuing spring, when, being in sound health and 
spirits, God be praised ! I began my journey on foot ; 
and as pleasant a journey 1 had of it as man could 
have. 

It was April, and the flowers were beginning to 
spring. The first violets that I saw in the hedge 
set my heart a-dancing, I cannot tell how ; and the 
sweet smell of the primrose, though I thought it 
much pleasanter than the mangoe tree in blossom, 
reminded me of the mangoe tope near our camp, 
w^here you and I, and some others, used to go to pray 
and sing when we lay in Bahar. 

When I came near to Staffordshire, I turned out 
of my direct road to pay a visit to Sergeant Browne. 
He, good man, knowing that I lay sick at Ports- 
mouth, had sent me a letter, to inform me that he 
had left the regiment, with Sergeants Mills and 



43^ STORIES ILLUSTRATING 

Francis, and that they were all settled comfortably 
in a village in Staffordshire. You would not know 
the place if I were to tell you the name. 

I was mightily pleased with this visit. You can- 
not think how comfortably our old friends are dis- 
posed of. The village lies in a kind of bottom, on 
the sunny side of a copse. Mills' and Francis' 
houses are close together ; Sergeant Browne's is 
nearer the copse ; and indeed so near it that Mrs. 
Browne says she can hear the wood-pigeons, and see 
the squirrels play among the trees, as she sits at her 
work. 

Sergeant Browne, as I still call him, though he is 
no sergeant now to be sure, picks up a little addition 
to his pension and what he has saved, by gardening. 
He has also a pretty garden of his own ; and Mrs. 
Browne teaches about a dozen little ones to read and 
work — an employment of which she is very capable. 
Francis had taken up his old trade of shoemaker, or 
cobbler as he calls himself; for he can only do rough 
work at present, till his hand is more in ; and Mrs. 
Francis takes in needlework. Sergeant Mills now 
and then does a little at the carpentering trade, which 
he followed for a few years in his youth. And as 
to his daughter, Mary, she is a fine, modest girl as 
ever I saw ; no one, to look at her, would suppose 
that she had been brought up in barracks, but the 
fear of God is all-suflScient. 

If it had not been that I so desired to see mother, 
I should have stayed longer with these good people. 
As it was, I stayed two Sundays over, and they were 
most edifying Sundays. The minister of the parish, 
one Mr. Nash, is a godly man. He reminded me 



THE CATECHISM. 437 

much of our dear Mr. King ; but there is a family 
likeness in all the children of God. 

We went twice to the parish church ; and in the 
evening Mr. Nash himself came into Sergeant 
Browne's, where we were all drinking tea, with 
Madam Nash. Before he took his leave he read the 
lesson for the evening, and offered prayers with us, 
after which we sang a hymn. 

When I took leave of these dear friends, I could 
not help being in much trouble, considering it as not 
very likely that we should ever meet again ; but 
Sergeant Browne comforted me with these words : 
*' There shall be one fold and one Shepherd." John 
X. 16. 

And with these words, beloved brother, I take 
leave of you. So may God bless you, and bless the 
works of your hands. 

From your loving brother, till death, 

James Law. 
37 * 




A GLOSSARY 

EXPLAINING, CHIEFLY, THE 

I N D IAN WORDS 

USED IN THE FOREGOING STORIES. 



Adah^ half. 

Adjutant^ a large bird which lives on carrion. 

Anna^ the sixteenth part of a rupee. 

Arrack^ an intoxicating liquor. 

Bazar ^ a market. 

Beebee^ a lady. 

Berth., the place appointed in a ship or barrack for 

any individual. 
Brahman., one of the order of Hindoo priests. 
Budgerow., an ornamented barge. 
Bungalow., a house w^ith a thatched roof. 
Caste. — The natives of India are divided into various 
ranks, called castes ; each caste has its respective 
employments, which descend from father to son. 
Chele., the Brahminee kite. 

Cheroot., a preparation of tobacco rolled up, and 
used by the lower classes of Europeans in India 
for smoking. 
Cherbi., fat or grease. 
Chockedaur., a watchman. 

439 



440 EXPLANATION OF INDIAN WORDS. 

Chopper-cot^ a word commonly used by the soldiers 
in India for a tent-bed. 

Chopper^ a thatched roof. 

Choury^ a fan for driving away flies ; commonly 
made of hair or feathers. 

Chuttack^ two ounces. 

Compound^ the enclosure round the house, generally 
walled. 

Coolies^ porters, generally very poor people. 

Copra ^ cloth. 

Copra-wauller^ literally the cloth-fellow, a cloth- 
merchant. 

Coss^ two miles. 

Couries^ shells which pass current as money. 

Cummerbund^ the cloth with which the waist is 
girded. 

Curry^ a stew made with various spices, the com- 
mon food of the natives of India. 

Dirge^ a tailor. 

Dobie^ a washerman. 

Doolie^ a kind of litter. 

Fakeer^ a religious mendicant. 

Gilaries^ a beautiful kind of small squirrel. 

Guavas^ a kind of fruit. 

Hackery^ a cart, generally drawn by bullocks. 

Halting Moriiing^ the morning where there is no 
parade. 

Hookah^ a peculiar apparatus for smoking, by which 
the smoke passes through water. 

Hooley^ a religious festival of the Hindoos. 

jfalousies^ Venetian windows. 

yungle^ a wild place, or wilderness. 

Khau7ia. food. 



EXPLANATION OF INDIAN WORDS. 441 

Lota^ a drinking-vessel. 

J\fa7tgoe-topes^ groves of the mangoe tree. 

Matraneys^ low Hindoos, who do the most menial 

offices. 
Mindy., a kind of myrtle. 
Mistry^ generally used for a carpenter, though the 

word is applied to other workmen. 
Mohur^ a gold coin of the value of sixteen rupees. 
Mora., a footstool. 
Mussulmaun., a Mohammedan. 
Pagoda., a Hindoo temple. 

Pucker., strong, complete ; a word of various signi- 
fications, and in constant use. 
Pucker-pice., a double penny. 
Punkah., a fan ; large ones are often suspended from 

the ceilings, and moved over the head. 
Putully-nautch., a puppet-show. 
Rupee., a silver coin about the value of sixty cents. 
Seer., two pound weight. 
Soudagur., a merchant. 
Tank., a pond. 

Tiffin' or Tiffing., the luncheon. 
Tum-tums., small drums. 

Veranda or Verandah., a long covered porch. 

Vishnou., the name of one of the primary gods of 
the Hindoos. 

Wieraun., a wilderness. 



NOTE 



It must be borne in mind that the word Methodist., 
as it occurs in the foregoing pages, does not refer to 



442 EXPLANATION OF INDIAN WORDS. 

a religious sect, but is used in its primitive sense. It 
was originally applied, in derision, to John Wesley, 
and other members of the Church, who undertook to 
live a godly life by method^ as prescribed in the 
Prayer Book. It is greatly to be regretted that many 
of the disciples of Wesley subsequently abandoned 
the Church, in spite of his earnest remonstrances. 







SPONSORS, AND THEIR DUTIES 




BY THE EDITOR. 

HOUGH the Baptism of Infants is not only 
part of a Divine system for the saving of 
souls, but also a great means of sanctifying 
households and perpetuating religion in families, it 
is an institution which demands of parents both zeal 
and piety to make it effectual. And forasmuch as 
infants may be deprived of their parents, provision 
is made that they may associate with themselves 
chosen Christian friends, so that, in any event, there 
may be the greatest assurance that the child shall be 
reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
Parents are naturally accountable for the performance 
of this duty to their offspring, and they can neither 
increase nor diminish their obligations in this re- 
spect ; so that in the Church of England parents 
are not allowed to be formally sponsors to their own 
children, lest, being led to regard their sponsorship 
as a voluntary thing, and assuming or declining it 
at will, they should imagine themselves in some 
degree absolved from natural responsibility. The 
Church in America allows parents to be the spon- 
sors of their children, however, because she is here 
in a missionar}^ position, and families have, very 

443 



444 SPONSORS, AND THEIR DUTIES. 

often, no immediate friends who are in communion 
with the Church. Each course has ancient prece- 
dent, but nobody should be chosen as a sponsor ex- 
cept a communicant of the Church, and one living a 
sober, righteous and godly life. Any other choice 
defeats the very object for which sponsorship is in- 
stituted ; and nobody should be willing to become a 
sponsor for others who has not answered for self in 
Confirmation, and sought grace and strength in the 
Holy Communion. 

When a Christian man, or woman, is asked by a 
friend to stand sponsor for a child, the proposal 
should never be thoughtlessly accepted or refused. 
It may be a providential call from God, and an op- 
portunity to do much good. Every Christian is 
bound to glorify God by ministering to the salvation 
of others ; and as we may fail to convert souls to 
Christ in any other way, we should rejoice in a fair 
and hopeful occasion of doing any good, and so im- 
proving the talent committed to our care. 

Nor should the office be declined simply because 
one may have little prospect of doing all that might 
be desirable. In such case the question is — Whether 
the child is likely to obtain a sponsor able to do more.'' 
or whether it be not one's duty to secure to the little 
one all that Providence allows in the case, if it be 
only the charitable prayer and profession of faith at 
the time of baptism.'* Even this is an important 
act of Christian love, and if God gives no opportu- 
nity for more, it may be a duty to one of those of 
whom Christ has said, " Suffer little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." 



SPOJVSOJ^S, AND THEIR DUTIES. 445 

Where a child has pious parents, and other spon- 
sors able to do everything that can be done for its 
soul, one may properly accept the place of a sponsor, 
if good reasons suggest themselves, even though his 
ov^ni portion of subsequent duty is likely to be small. 

But cases are widely different. In some cases 
sponsors ought to stipulate for an active share in the 
spiritual education of a child ; in others, it may be 
as lawful to stipulate for direct responsibility only 
in case of the death of parents or of sponsors more 
nearly related. 

But sponsors should always remember their god- 
children in frequent prayers, and in all such acts of 
influence and example as may serve to direct them 
to duty. 

A male child requires a godmother for infant 
years, but more especially a godfather in advancing 
youth. So the Church requires, where it is con- 
venient, that parents should supply him with two 
godfathers, to provide against the contingency of 
death or other accidents, and to multiply the reason- 
able expectation of his being reared to Christian 
manhood. For similar reasons, a female child is to 
have two godmothers, but only one godfather, it 
being all-important that in the critical period of 
early maidenhood a young girl should not lack an 
experienced female friend, fitted to be her guide and 
counsellor. 

Where sponsorship is thus understood and made 
a reality, it is a precious bond between families and 
friends and makes a holy relationship between chil- 
dren and those who have stood for them at the font. 
It may be remarked that proxy sponsorship, though 

38 



44^ si^ojvsOjRS, and their duties. 

not always to be discouraged, should never be al- 
lowed except by express agreement with the absent 
friend chosen as a sponsor. It does not answer to 
appoint a sponsor who has never actually under- 
taken the solemn obligation — " soberly, advisedly 
and in the fear of God." 

Sponsors were an early institution of the Chris- 
tian Church, answering, in some respects, to a sim- 
ilar institution under the Law. The parents of the 
man born blind probably alluded to the Jewish cus- 
tom when they said, "' He is of age, ask him, he 
shall speak for himself." The jailer at Philippi 
seems to have had all his household baptized, on his 
own sponsorship, " that same hour of the night" in 
which he himself had repented and believed. Other 
scriptural instances will suggest themselves where 
sponsorship is implied. Subsequently, when parents 
were likely to be martyred at any time, leaving their 
children among Jewish or Pagan relatives, it was 
found a very important arrangement for securing to 
them the blessings of a Christian education. 

The principle of Intercessory prayer lies at the 
foundation of sponsorship. The faith and prayers 
of the righteous are of great avail when exercised in 
behalf of others. This appears from the history of 
the paralytic, who " was borne of four." St. Mark 
ii. 3. It is written, '' When Jesus saw their faith, 
he saith unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be 
forgiven thee." Compare St. Luke v. 20 and St. 
Matt. ix. 2. Those who bore him were, virtually, 
his sponsors ; and Christ blessed the sick man be- 
cause of their faith. But unless the sick man also 
accepted this absolution by faith of his own, and bj 



SPONSORS, AND THEIR DUTIES. 447 

sincere repentance, it cannot be doubted that it failed 
to secure him the blessing of eternal salvation. 

It is to be considered, then, by parents and spon- 
sors that no small benefit is secured to the child if 
earnest prayers and sincere profession of faith be 
made by sponsors at the time of Baptism. Thus the 
Jewish mothers who brought their children to 
Christ secured a blessing by their faith and suppli- 
cation. Yet, it must not be supposed that the spon- 
sors, as some say, " make promises instead of the 
child;" rather, the child makes promises by them. 
In this there is an important principle, which modern 
ideas of Baptism often keep out of view. 

Some object that a child cannot make promises, 
before the use of reason, nor by the act of others. 
This at first seems true ; yet a little reflection will 
show that a child can make a profitable contract by 
his representatives, involving obligations which he is 
bound to fulfil, if he claims the benefit of the con- 
tract, in mature years. Such a contract, or cove- 
nant, is Baptism ; the sponsors acknowledge the ob- 
ligations which it imposes on the child, and the child, 
if he claims the benefit of the covenant, is bound to 
fulfil his part of it. He can annul it, of course, as 
Esau sold his birth-right ; but then he must answer 
to God for rejecting the blessing of eternal salvation. 
Heb. xii. 15, 16, 17. 

Sometimes the guardians of an infant make con- 
tracts in his name, for the purpose of securing to the 
child an earthly estate. In after life he may refuse 
the obligations, and forfeit the estate ; but the guar- 
dians did their duty, in securing it for him, so far as 
lay in their power. How much more do we owe it 



44^ SPONSORS, AND THEIR DUTIES. 

to children to •' suffer them" to come into a covenant 
with God for an eternal inheritance ! If we in- 
struct them in the preciousness of such an inher- 
itance, they will not dare to reject it ; and yet, if they 
cling to the hope of the inheritance, they must ac- 
knowledge themselves bound to do what the contract 
involves. Thus, as under the old Law, he who was 
circumcised in infancy " was a debtor to do the 
whole Law," so under the new, he who is baptized 
is a debtor to obey the Gospel. Galatians v. 3, com- 
pared with Colossians ii. 11, 12. 

Besides, as Baptism secures the young Christian 
many covenant blessings before he comes to years 
of discretion, he Is laid under the greater responsi- 
bility by the means of grace and Christian training 
which he has enjoyed. So one who has been sup- 
ported out of an estate during childhood, on the 
condition of taking the name of its original owner, 
is under obligations to do so, or to restore what he 
has used. 

God deals with those who are born into his king- 
dom by Baptism, just as the State treats those wdio 
are born its citizens. It is of no use for the citizen 
to say " he w^as born under laws to which he never 
consented ;" the State, which reared and protected 
him, rightfully exacts obedience and service, and so 
does God. 

Such is the Divine system of accountability for 
the talents actually bestowed, whether improved or 
not, as is shown in the parable of the servants. St. 
Matt. XXV. 15. 

Sponsors, therefore, sign and seal a covenant be- 
tween their godchild and the Lord of the kingdom ; 



SPOJVSOJiS, AND THEIR DUTIES. 449 

which covenant tlie child, when he comes of age, is 
bound to fulfil. To do otherwise is to renounce 
the covenant of salvation. 

It is the duty of sponsors, by the use of the Cate- 
chism and by the Holy Scriptures, to teach their 
godchild the nature of these obligations. If the child 
be thus trained " in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord," there is every encouragement to believe 
that he will not depart from the way in which he 
should go. 

Those who are sponsors for adult persons are 
rather witnesses than sponsors ; and so they are 
called. But they help the catechumen by their 
faith and prayers, and enter into a near relation of 
Christian counsel and friendship with him. 

Sponsors should especially enforce upon their god- 
children the importance of Confirmation ; and use 
their endeavours to lead them to an intelligent and 
pious reception of this apostolic rite at an early age. 

After briefly enforcing the primary duties of spon- 
sors to their godchild, the Church adds the injunc- 
tion : " Ye are to take care that this child be brought 
to the Bishop, to be confirmed by him, as soon as he 
can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten 
Commandments, and is su^ciently instructed in the 
other parts of the Church Catechism." 

But it must not be imagined that mere knowledge 
of duty, without an intelligent resolution to perform 
it, is accepted by the Church as enough to entitle a 
young Christian to Confirmation. The sponsors 
must inform their pastor that they have done their 
duty to their godchild, and then he is bound to make 
further inquiries as to faith and penitence ; and the 
38* 2D 



450 SPONSORS, AND THE II? DUTIES. 

Bishop confirms only those whom the pastor de- 
clares in writing, " with his hand subscribed there- 
unto," to be, in his judgment, j^/ /<? be f resented iox 
Confirmation. See rubric at end of the Catechism. 

It appears, then, that the duties which gain for one 
the honourable name of a godfather or a godmother 
are those of Profession of Faith and Intercessory 
Prayer ; with Attorneyship at the Font, Suretyship 
to the Church, Guardianship to the Child, and Moni- 
torial responsibility until the Child's Confirmation, 
not excluding a spiritual relationship afterward. 

Thus God may be glorified, and souls saved, by a 
faithful discharge of the duties of a Sponsor. 




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